SCOTUS decides to hear Florida’s ‘Water Wars’ lawsuit against Georgia

• CL File
• SHARE WITH NEIGHBORS: Florida is once again accusing Georgia of slurping too much water from the Chattahoochee River before it reaches the Sunshine State.

The seemingly never-ending war between Georgia, Florida, and Alabama over how water from Lake Lanier is allocated among the three states will soon be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

For the past quarter century, the three southern states have sparred in courtrooms over the way that water flowing from the Chattahoochee River through Lake Lanier should be split among Georgia and its southern and western neighbors. It’s known as the “Water Wars.”

Florida has long argued that Georgia has deprived the state from its fair share of water, which flows from Lake Lanier and into Alabama before ending up in the Gulf of Mexico. In late 2013, Florida Gov. Rick Scott asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case in the wake of what he called a federal disaster in the Apalachicola Bay. According to Scott, metro Atlanta’s overconsumption of Lake Lanier’s resources resulted in the collapse of the oyster industry. That part of Florida relies on the right combination of fresh and salt water to keep its seafood industry a-humming.

Scott further elaborated this week in a statement:

This is huge news and a major victory for Florida, and marks the first of many important victories for the families and businesses of Apalachicola. We took bold action last year to protect the waters of Apalachicola from Georgia’s unchecked use of these critical resources. For 20 years, Florida has tried to work with Georgia, and families have continued to see their fisheries suffer from the lack of water. The Supreme Court takes up so few cases, and their willingness to hear Florida’s demonstrates the merits of our case before the Court. We are fighting for the future of this region, and we won’t quit until these resources are restored.

If you recall, Gov. Nathan Deal dismissed the lawsuit as a “frivolous” case that lacked merit. The governor’s was busy this week wining a second and final term in the governor’s mansion. But here’s what he said at the time of the lawsuit’s initial filing:

The only ‘unmitigated consumption’ going on around here is Florida’s waste of our tax dollars on a frivolous lawsuit. Florida is receiving historically high water flows at the state line this year, but it needs a bogeyman to blame for its poor management of Apalachicola Bay. Our conservation efforts have decreased metro Atlanta’s water use even as our population has grown substantially, and Georgia offered a framework for an agreement which never received a response from Florida. This lawsuit is political theater and nothing more. We’ve won consistently in court and will defend Georgia’s water rights vigorously in the Supreme Court, because our case is the only one with any merit.

The U.S. Supreme Court has given both states 30 days to file their responses. We’ve embedded the full lawsuit to refresh your memories after the jump.

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