The Southeast's rich cultural, economic, and environmental heritage depends on clean, abundant water. In recent years conflicts over water use and supply have generated debate over how to ensure that various needs are met while protecting the environment, fostering economic development, ensuring regional fairness, and empowering affected groups. Problems include

• Interbasin transfers.
• Inequitable pricing schemes.
• Threats to instream quality caused by withdrawals or other activities whose impacts cross state lines.

• Land use and population pressures stemming from the rapid growth of metropolitan Atlanta.
• Quantity and quality issues in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint basin.
• Balancing multi-purpose needs in the Central & Southern Florida water supply "restudy."
• Diverting water from Lake Gaston on the Virginia-North Carolina border to Virginia Beach.

     The objectives of this symposium are to:

• Identify conflicts over current and future water use.
• Consider what resource-related information is needed to address these conflicts and meet other threats.
• Assess how present and future conflicts may be better managed through new institutions and decision-making mechanisms that are regionally based and comprehensive in scope.

     During two and a half days, a select group of federal, state, and local officials, water user groups, environmental and community organizations, and academic and other researchers will consider these problems through expert presentations and large- and small-group discussions.

Day One:
     A plenary session will establish the dimensions of Southeast water problems by identifying current and projected water-use trends and critical issues, as well as major policy initiatives.

Day Two:
     Participants will examine case studies that reveal impediments to comprehensive, coordinated management of transboundary water problems. They also will discuss keys to overcoming these impediments as revealed by successful experiences with negotiation and problem-solving techniques. During the remainder of Day Two, participants will devise elements for a successful regional strategy.

Day Three:
     Participants will consider how such a strategy may be brought about.

• A report, furnished to the Appalachian Regional Commission, will contain a series of policy recommendations.
• A summit will be held within months of the report's publication. The summit will feature decision makers from national, state, and local agencies; and other important groups. It will produce a set of priorities among current water uses that may be addressed via a regional framework. It will also identify ongoing challenges likely to remain unresolved under existing decision-making mechanisms.