US Supreme Court decides to stay out of ACF water war

A US Supreme Court decision last week to not take up a case about water use from the Apalachicola Chattahoochee Flint River System could have a big impact on the area or at the least drag the over twenty year old dispute on for years longer.

The court refused Florida’s request to review an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that allows the city of Atlanta to use Lake Lanier as a drinking water source.

Florida has argued successfully that the federal reservoir was never meant to provide drinking water and that Atlanta should either get congressional approval for the use or find a source of water that won’t impact people living from Atlanta to the Apalachicola Bay.

The water dispute which also includes Alabama, has been in the courts since 1990.

The local Riverkeeper group expressed disappointment about the decision but added that at least the Lake Lanier issue ic closed for now so they can focus on managing water to meet the needs of all users throughout the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Basin.

The ACF Stakeholders group, which has been working to create an equitable water use strategy for the river system has suggested that instead of new rounds of litigation, that everyone involved sit down to work on a sustainable plan for how the water can best be managed throughout the entire basin.

 

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