Gov. Bob Riley will go to Washington this week to meet with the governors of Georgia and Florida to try to resolve the continuing water wars.

Riley said Friday that after a meeting with federal officials he was more optimistic about a possible compromise.

Alabama, Georgia and Florida are in dispute about how much water the Army Corps of Engineers is allowing to flow out of Georgia’s Lake Lanier into Alabama and Florida. The flow affects the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa rivers in Alabama.

The Army Corps of Engineers says it is complying with federal guidelines by sending millions of gallons of water from Georgia downstream to Florida and Alabama to supply power plants and protect federally threatened mussel species.

Riley had called Thursday for a truce between Alabama, Georgia and Florida, all of which are locked in a decades-long fight over federal reservoirs. The drought — which government forecasters reported could soon get worse — has intensified the jockeying.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama said, “The ongoing drought has cast light on the complicated issue of water allocation in the Southeast, which is critical to continued economic growth in our region.”

Almost a third of the Southeast is covered by an exceptional drought, the worst category, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center. The burgeoning Atlanta area, with a population of 5 million, is in the middle of the affected region.

Georgia lawmakers announced plans Thursday for a network of state reservoirs, while the governors of Alabama and Florida warned that Georgia’s consumption threatens their downstream states.