Water is a huge issue in state politics. Just ask Kansas and Colorado, or Georgia and Alabama. When it comes to water, you will never here anyone asking if we can’t all just get along.

S.C. taxpayers would pay $1.4 million in a legal fight against North Carolina over water in the Catawba River under a plan passed by state budget writers.The money is about half of what S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster thinks it will cost to try and stop two cities in North Carolina from drawing millions of gallons of water from the river, which provides drinking water and electricity to both states.McMaster said his office has already spent $200,000 since suing North Carolina in June. South Carolina wants the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case directly to save money and prevent years of legal wrangling.

“These costs are far in excess of those normally encountered in our regular litigation,” he said in a Feb. 15 letter to Gov. Mark Sanford and state budget leaders obtained by The [Columbia] State.

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