The
Apalachicola Bay area received some bad news last week after the
special master named by the US Supreme Court sided with Georgia over
Florida in the battle over water use from the
Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system.
U.S.
Circuit Judge Paul Kelly Jr last Wednesday recommended that the US
Supreme Court reject Florida's request to limit how Georgia uses
water from the river system.
For
nearly 30 years Florida has argued that Georgia is taking too much
water from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin,
hurting oysters and other species in the Apalachicola River and
Bay.
Florida
argued 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.
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.
Judge
Kelly said the state failed to prove the issue was Georgia's fault
and said the evidence has shown that Georgia’s water use is
reasonable; and the evidence has not shown that the benefits of
apportionment would substantially outweigh the potential harms.
Kelly
is the second judge the Supreme Court appointed to review the case.
In
2017, Special Master Ralph Lancaster Jr. also sided with
Georgia, determining that while Florida had suffered harm from the
decreased water flow in the river basin, it had not proven that
limiting the amount of water Georgia consumed would provide the
relief it sought.
Kelly’s
recommendation is not an end to the case.
Supreme
Court justices must now decide whether to accept or reject his
report, convene oral arguments in Washington or call for Kelly to
revisit the case.
If
you would like to see Kelly's recommendation go to :
http://live.oysterradio.com/
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