Georgia loses round in fight over Lanier water

Georgia failed in its last-ditch effort to save a 2003 agreement that would have given metro Atlanta more water from Lake Lanier.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Georgia’s request to review a lower court’s decision to invalidate the agreement between Georgia, metro Atlanta governments, federal hydropower customers and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the federal reservoir. The 20-year agreement would have set aside up to 50 percent more water in Lanier for the region.

In return, the metro governments would have paid about $2.5 million toward the cost of operating Lanier’s Buford Dam.

Last year, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Alabama and Florida, which sued to stop metro Atlanta from taking more of Lanier’s water. The appeals court ruled that shifting more of Lake Lanier’s water to metro Atlanta would require Congressional approval. Because of the Supreme Court’s decision, that ruling stands.

For Georgia, a new agreement was a coveted prize in the two-decades-old, tri-state water war. The deal would have guaranteed a growing water supply for metro Atlanta. The lake is the primary source of drinking water for more than 3 million metro Atlantans.

Now the battle shifts back to a federal court in Jacksonville, Fla., where briefs are due Jan. 23. The first question the court will decide is whether metro Atlanta has a legal claim on Lanier’s water.

The stakes could not be bigger. According to regional water planners, no other source can take Lanier’s place.

During droughts, Florida wants enough water from Lanier to maintain flows into the Apalachicola Bay for federally protected fish and mussel species, and for its oyster harvest. Alabama wants enough to maintain the operation of a nuclear power plant near Dothan.

In a statement, Gov. Sonny Perdue said Monday’s decision merely maintains the status quo. He said Georgia will continue to work with Alabama and Florida to reach a water-sharing agreement, a feat even the White House could not achieve last year.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican, said in a statement he hopes the high court’s decision will bring Georgia back to the negotiation table with a different offer.

Both Alabama and Florida blame the attempted agreement for derailing five years of Congressionally authorized and public negotiations over Lanier and the Chattahoochee River that runs through it. The two states called the deal illegal because it had been privately negotiated without their knowledge.

Georgia maintained that the deal was for far less water than the three states were fighting about, and would more fairly distribute the costs of operating Lanier.