I feel I should point out that Tennessee does actually share water with some northwest Georgia counties.

Tennessee American has signed deals with several neighboring water systems to provide emergency water.

For example, if my water company in Walker County runs out of water, they have a deal where they can buy water from Tenn AM.

There is nothing that says Tennessee American cannot sell water across the state line.

What they cannot do is sell it out of the river basin area (that rules out Atlanta or Dalton).

Trenton, Chickamauga, Ft. Oglethorpe & Ringgold are all part of the Tennessee River basin because Lookout, Chattanooga and Chickamauga Creeks all run into the river.

But Dalton, Chatsworth, LaFayette and Summerville are out of luck.

Tennessee and Alabama passed laws setting up a basin commission to regulate (restrict) water transfers out of the Tennessee River area.

So Dade County could get Tennessee River water now, but they can't turn around and sell it to Atlanta.

If Georgia were to have access to the River, they would presumably ignore the basin water commission.

So Dade county could then sell the water to whomever they wanted.