Florida faces big setback in decades old water war

Florida suffered a major setback in the decades long water war with the state of Georgia when the special master appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case sided with Georgia in a recommendation issued on Tuesday.

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

Florida has argued that Georgia’s unchecked water consumption has brought historically-low water flows into the Apalachicola Bay and has caused oysters to die because of higher salinity, increased disease and predator intrusion.

Until recently, Apalachicola Bay accounted for approximately 10 percent of the nation’s Eastern oyster supply. 

The oyster industry in Apalachicola collapsed in 2012 leading to a Commercial Fisheries Disaster Declaration from the U.S. Department of Commerce in 2013. 

Special Master Ralph Lancaster was named by the US Supreme Court to hear the case – on Tuesday he issued a 137 page report recommending that the supreme court deny Florida's request for relief.

Lancaster said Florida did not prove that imposing a cap on Georgia's water use “would provide a material benefit to Florida.”

Lancaster said he does believe the 2012 collapse of the Apalachicola Bay oyster industry was caused by decreased flows from the river and not from mismanagement as Georgia argued.

He also pointed to Georgia's “largely unrestrained”agricultural consumption of water as a major factor on the basin water flow.

The number of acres Georgia farmers have under irrigation has soared from 75,000 acres in 1970 to more than 825,000. 

Part of the issue is that the US Army corps of Engineers was not a party to the lawsuit.

Lancaster said that since the corps oversees the dams and reservoirs that control water flow through the river system he could not devise a settlement between Florida and Georgia without the Corps' participation.

He wrote that without the ability to bind the Corps, he did not feel that the court could assure Florida the relief it seeks.

The recommendation will now be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court for a final ruling.

http://live.oysterradio.com/