Alabama negotiators make it sound like a deal too good to pass up. For others, however, there are still some unanswered questions. Either way, both sides are thankful that the word is finally getting out.

Jerry Culberson with Weiss Lake Improvement Association was one of the many citizens and local officials who turned out for a Rotary Club meeting and press conference last week. Guest speaker was Jim Campbell, chief negotiator in the ongoing ACT Compact agreement between Alabama and Georgia, whom a panel of other experts involved in this issue accompanied.

In the end, deals and negotiations revolve around two concerns, Culberson said, which are water volume and water quality. And the current environmental laws in place aren't enough to address the matter.

We need an agreement," said Culberson. "But it needs to be the right agreement. Does the agreement satisfy both issues? The Clean Water Act has been around since 1977 and ADEM (Alabama Department of Environmental Management) still hasn't established water quality standards. Is it going to take 29 years to get it addressed if there is a violation? We need to establish some standards and it should have been done a long time ago. I don't know what's going to happen in north Georgia over the next couple of years. But we want to be sure we are getting acceptable standards and the state needs to address that.