The U.S. Supreme Court says will hear a second round of oral arguments today in the long-running case over water use from the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, Flint river system

The U.S. Supreme Court says will hear a second round of oral arguments today in the long-running case over water use from the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, Flint river system.

The Supreme Court will hear Florida’s water rights case against Georgia today, marking the second time the 7-year-old case has been before the justices.

It is the only case scheduled to be heard by the court today.

The justices heard the first round of oral arguments in this case in 2018.

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 has 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. 

The state of Florida recently enacted a 5 year moratorium on wild oyster harvesting in the Apalachicola Bay in an effort to help the wild oyster stock rebuild more quickly.

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