In July, a federal judge ruled that metro Atlanta has little — if any — right to draw drinking water from Lake Lanier. Since then, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue has resided uncomfortably at the middle of the tri-state water war's pressure-cooker.

That Perdue has finally agreed to a face-to-face meeting with his adversaries, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, may equate to the needed turning point of this long-standing disagreement.

If so, it may prove that Riley deserves a fair share of the credit. He has kept the pressure on Perdue without pushing him into a corner from which there was no exit but to fight. That's smart poker.

Riley's ace was the federal judge who told the three states to work out their disagreements or suffer the consequences — which were nothing short of dire for Perdue and much of north Georgia.

If no water-sharing agreement was reached, metro Atlanta's water supply would be drastically reduced. Despite all the talk about new reservoirs, drawing water from Lake Allatoona or moving the Georgia-Tennessee line farther north so Atlanta could get water from the Tennessee River, even the most rational solution could not come online before the judge's 2012 deadline.

Georgia's hope for a congressional rescue also faded when its own delegation told the governor that this was his problem, not Washington's.

So Perdue went back to court and appealed the judge's ruling, a tactic few felt would do more than delay the inevitable. Meanwhile, Georgia residents, "stakeholders" in what sort of water-sharing agreement was reached, began organizing private interest groups to push for a solution — or, at least, to get the governor to quit delaying and act.

And now, after months of posturing, Perdue has agreed to meet with Riley and Crist. It will be their first meeting about this issue in two years.

Why now?

Some have suggested that getting Crist to commit to the meeting was the key. Involved in an increasingly divisive U.S. Senate campaign, Florida's governor has said little and done less about the water situation. Though it is not clear why he has agreed to meet, Crist's decision surely will help Alabama's cause.

However, a more significant factor might be a recent report from Georgia's water task force that estimated the loss of Lake Lanier as a source of drinking water could cost businesses in metro Atlanta and the northern part of that state as much as $26 billion annually.

The affluent, fast-growing counties of Gwinnett, Forsyth and Hall would be hit hardest. Conservation measures — gray-water recycling, new ground-water sources and even desalinizing sea water — would not come close to meeting the region's needs.

Georgia is in a bind. If Perdue was concerned about his legacy, even passing this problem along to his successor would not absolve him of the responsibility of nothing being done.

So, the three governors will meet in Montgomery on Dec. 15. Hope a fair and satisfactory agreement is reached, and soon.