WASHINGTON - Alabama, Florida and Georgia lawmakers are upping the ante in a feud over water rights, a fight fueled by Atlanta's explosive growth and worries that drought-stricken regions of the Southeast are months away from running out of water.

Each state is pressing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on decades-old water control plans that give guidance on how best to release millions of gallons of water from river basins that the states share. Such plans are especially important when states face floods or droughts.

All three states accuse the Corps playing favorites in choosing when to release millions of gallons of water for drinking, hydropower, recreational and agricultural uses.

The tri-state battle pits Florida's concerns about preserving endangered species of mussels and sturgeon and the effects of booming population growth in Atlanta against those of Georgia, which worries that the water needed to keep the species alive draws from dwindling sources such as Lake Lanier outside of Atlanta. Alabama, meanwhile, contends Georgia needs to loosen its hold on water from Lake Allatoona in the Atlanta metro area so that the state can replenish much-needed water supplies and continue running a nuclear power plant in the southern part of the state.

"The water control plan governing these two critical river basins is decades old and is no longer serving the needs of the state of Georgia," said Sen. Johnny Isakson R-Ga. "Thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of residents have moved to this part of Georgia since then. It is imperative that we update the water control plan to reflect 21st century demand and usage."

Earlier this week, Georgia's governor, Sonny Purdue, threatened to sue the Army Corps over how it handles decisions to release water from Atlanta's reservoir.

Florida's Department of Environmental Protection recently fired off a terse letter to the Corps, saying failure to release the water would result in "a profound disruption of the socioeconomic foundation in Florida's panhandle region."

All three states have river basin lawsuits pending in federal courts, Corps officials said.

And though all three states have enacted varying degrees of water restrictions, the states accuse one another of not doing enough to help conserve water.

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