Florida and Georgia will have until the end of January to file new arguments in the legal fight over water use from the Apalachicola River system

Florida and Georgia will have until the end of January to file new arguments in the legal fight over water use from the Apalachicola River system. 

Paul J. Kelly, a federal appellate judge from Santa Fe, New Mexico who is serving as special master, set a January 31st deadline for the initial briefs and a February 28th deadline for reply briefs. 

Kelly was appointed as the new special master earlier this year ; he replaces Maine lawyer Ralph Lancaster as special master.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that Lancaster was too strict when he said the court could not boost water flow into the Apalachicola River and help the Apalachicola Bay oyster industry.

The justices said Florida made a sufficient showing that capping consumption by Georgia would provide a direct benefit to the Apalachicola Bay.

The decision sent the case back to the special master for further arguments.

Kelly denied Florida’s request for additional evidence-gathering in the case saying there is “ample evidence” from the prior litigation to draw conclusions on issues like the scope of Georgia’s water use and its impact on the Florida oyster industry in the Apalachicola Bay.

The two states as well as Alabama have been fighting for over two decades over how to share water from the River system.

The State of Florida filed suit in the US Supreme Court in 2014 to try to reduce the amount of water Georgia is taking from the River System.

Florida believes that Georgia’s water consumption has brought historically-low water flows into the Apalachicola Bay and has caused the local oyster industry to collapse because of higher salinity, increased disease and predator intrusion.

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