There has been a shortage of water, but no shortage of angry words among the states fighting for it. Shortly before boarding a plane to fly to Washington to meet with the governors of Georgia and Florida, Gov. Bob Riley said it won't be angry words or the states involved that will resolve the issue.

He said a solution to the states' water problems would have to originate from the federal government, not from the individual states.

"I never will allow any other state or governor to determine what Alabama needs," Riley said.

The recent focus of all three states has been federal.

Alabama's senators sent a letter to President Bush on Wednesday urging him not to reduce the water currently required to flow downstream from Lake Lanier in Georgia through the Chattahoochee River in Alabama and into the Gulf of Mexico.

They said to do so would be to side with Georgia against downstream residents in Alabama and Florida, who need the water just as badly.

The letter preceded Riley's visit today to Washington, where he, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist are expected to meet with officials of the Interior Department, which controls the river flow.

Georgia officials recently asked the Bush administration to restrict the water flow from Lake Lanier, where Atlanta gets much of its drinking water, saying it would only temporarily harm endangered mussels and sturgeon.

But Alabama Republican Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions said the move also would reduce water to the Farley Nuclear Plant near Dothan as well as community drinking water supplies and hydroelectric plants in Alabama.

"If you were to grant this request, you would not be 'siding with people' instead of mussels and sturgeon," they wrote. "You would be valuing the well-being of the people in Georgia over the citizens of Alabama and Florida."

Both governors as well as the senators from Alabama and Georgia plan to meet in Shelby's office this morning in hopes of persuading Georgia representatives to participate in mediation over water issues.

Florida's congressional delegation also called on the Bush administration this week not to limit water flows from Lake Lanier because it could hurt the commercial fishing industry in Florida's Panhandle.

The states are involved in longstanding lawsuits over water in both the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river basins. The current drought has brought issues to a head, especially in Georgia, where strict water conservation rules are being enforced.

The conservation doesn't impress Riley.

He said Alabama was conserving its water before historic drought conditions hit the state.

"Since last spring, Alabama has had in place water restriction and conservation plans all over our state from Birmingham to Montgomery," Riley said.

"If Georgia had just used the same water plans as we did, we might not be having to fly up to Washington and have these discussions," he said.

Riley said he has guarded optimism that at least a short-term agreement can be reached.

He said he has great confidence in interior secretary Dirk Kempthorpe, who is serving as the arbitrator of Thursday's three-hour meeting between the three state's governors.

"Dirk is a former governor who understands this situation and will help us all come up with a practical solution," Riley said.

He said he isn't sure the Washington meeting will solve Alabama's water problem in the long term, but insists an interim plan must come out of today's meeting.

"This issue effects Alabama more than any other issue in recent years," Riley said.

But the federal government may not be able to do much to solve the immediate problem because of the drought stretching throughout the Southeast.

"In the short-term, conservation will do a lot," said Robert Abrams, a law professor at Florida A&M and an expert on water law.

Georgia could take a number of steps ranging from not watering lawns or washing cars to installing low-flush toilets, he said. Georgia has put pressure on the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin because of Atlanta's population growth and higher usage of water by farmers on the Flint River, he said.

And governors aren't helping by blaming each other for the problem rather than trying to work out solutions, he said.

"None of them seem to be very committed to solving the problem," Abrams said. "They seem to be committed to making political statements."

Riley said the state does want to solve the problem and is willing to work with the other states to do it.

But he said Alabama is willing to share some of the burdens and hardships, not shoulder them all.