After weeks of firing harsh words across the Chattahoochee, the governors of Georgia and Alabama will sit down today in Washington, along with their counterpart from Florida and the secretary of the interior.

Shelby has invited Perdue, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and the U.S. senators from Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

Shelby and U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., left an icy welcome mat for Perdue on Wednesday in a tersely worded letter to President Bush voicing their staunch opposition to Perdue’s request for White House intervention on water releases from Buford Dam.

Shelby and Sessions wrote that such a step "would be extreme and have a devastating effect on the residents of Alabama."

The senators dismissed the notion that the water crisis is "people versus mussels and sturgeons."

They went on to say that Georgia’s attitude is one-sided.

"Clearly, Georgia wants to reallocate the water because it has not done a good job in anticipating and responding to long-festering water supply problems in the state. As a result, it wants to limit Alabama’s and Florida’s allocation of water to compensate," they wrote.

The letter from Shelby and Sessions is just the latest in a war of words between officials from Alabama and Georgia.

Riley, a second-term Republican like Perdue, said that Georgia’s request for an emergency declaration amounts to the "unilateral transfer" of control over the water in Lake Lanier from the federal government to Georgia.

"We’re going in asking for a decision," Brantley said. "We’re not going up there to continue to delay and discuss and come back later and later. We need decisions and we’re asking for some action on our requests."

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., is among those scheduled to be at the first meeting.