Supreme Court rules in Florida's favor in water war, but the fight continues

Franklin County received some good news on Wednesday after the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Florida in the ongoing legal battle between Florida and Georgia over water use in the Apalachicola Chattahoochee Flint River system.

The decision does not solve the “Water War” but it does give Florida a better chance of reaching an agreement that will insure that enough water flows into the Apalachicola Bay to protect the local oyster and seafood industry.

The Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that the court-appointed special master 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 sends the case back to the special master for further arguments – it could take months for that to be complete.

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.

The special master ruled last year that Florida did not prove that imposing a cap on Georgia's water use “would provide a material benefit to Florida” and argued that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages dams on the Chattahoochee River, has more to do with water flowing into Florida than Georgia does.

And even though Lancaster sided with Georgia in the case, he 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 acres today. 

Governor Rick Scott called the ruling a huge win for the entire state of Florida.

Congressman Neal Dunn said The Supreme Court made the right decision today in recognizing that Florida has been harmed as a result of decreased water flow to the ACF River Basin. Adding that Now it’s time for the Special Master and Army Corps of Engineers to come up with an equitable solution.

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