Florida decides to sue Georgia over water

The State of Florida will file suit against Georgia to try to slow the amount of water Georgia is taking from the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee Flint River System.

Governor Rick Scott and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio made the announcement Tuesday that the State of Florida will file a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court to stop Georgia’s growing consumption of water, which is threatening the economic future of Apalachicola.

Governor Scott said the state would file the lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court in September.

He made the announcement following a tour of Apalachicola Bay Tuesday with Senator Rubio, several area legislators and elected officials.

Florida, Georgia and Alabama have been fighting over water use from the river system for over 2 decades, and the three states have not been able to reach an equitable solution.

In recent years the courts have sided with Georgia over many of the water issues, which include allowing the use of the federal reservoir of Lake Lanier as a source of drinking water for Atlanta.

The Metro-Atlanta area primarily gets its water from the Chattahoochee River with withdrawals totaling 360 million gallons per day.

Georgia’s consumption is expected to nearly double to 705 million gallons per day by 2035, if Atlanta’s population and water consumption grows unchecked.

That estimated daily consumption represents the approximate water volume of the entire Apalachicola Bay.

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