On Wed, 07 Nov 2001 01:45:05 +0000, you wrote:

>
>
>
>>From: "Andrew
>
>> The Supreme Court also has
>>jurisdiction when States sue other States (A rare thing). This year
>>the Supreme Court will hear Maryland vs. Virginia about a dispute over
>>the Potomac River.
>
>please let us know anything more that you can about this case
>
>it sounds like tripoints may be involved
>
>thanx
>
>m
>

The basis of the case is that Maryland controls the Potomac River.
That is the border between Virginia and Maryland is at the waters edge
on the Virginia side (The river is completely in Maryland). But as
part of its creation, Maryland gave Virginia navigation rights and the
rights to make piers in the river.

One of the "piers" that Virginia built was a inlet to the water
treatment plant for Fairfax County. Last year Virginia determined that
the inlet pipe need to be larger and further in the river (As to get
less muddy water)*. Maryland was not too happy with this concept.
Maryland told Virginia that the inlet was not a pier and said that
they would not allow the inlet to be built. Virginia felt that was
with in their rights and decided to sue.

Some other facts to know about the case is that Maryland has quite a
bit more local government than Virginia (They actually have towns with
governments) and regularly complains about the lack of control over
housing development in Virginia. So, one of the reasons they did not
want the water inlet to be changed was to slow down the growth in
Virginia.

Earlier this year Maryland relented and allowed Virginia to change the
inlet but the case continues never the less (ie the case is moot).

* As a resident of Fairfax County, I have a small interest in the
case.

-Andrew

--
Andrew T. Patton WWW: http://www.AndrewPatton.com
Fairfax, VA, USA E-Mail: andrew@...