Washington —- Georgia asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn a February ruling that said the state needs congressional approval to use more water from Lake Lanier to supply the fast-growing Atlanta area.

Lanier, which provides most of Atlanta's water, is at the heart of a nearly two-decade water feud between Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

To meet growing needs over the coming decades, Georgia and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed in 2003 to allow the state's withdrawals to jump from about 13 percent of the lake's capacity to about 22 percent.

Florida and Alabama contested the agreement, arguing that the lake was initially built for hydropower and that providing water to Georgia was not an authorized use.

A federal district court sided with Georgia.

But in February, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington overturned that decision, saying the agreement between Georgia and the corps amounted to a major operational change at the reservoir that required congressional approval.

In its petition to the Supreme Court, Georgia said the appeals court erred by even taking up the question of whether the water agreement amounted to an operational change under the law because that question was not specifically addressed in the lower court.

Georgia also argued the appeals court was not equipped to make such a complicated assessment and instead relied on an "astonishingly simple comparison" of lake withdrawals to reach its decision.

Georgia argues that water consumption has always been an intended purpose for the lake and that plenty of federal statutes support such a use.

Attorneys said it was unclear when the Supreme Court would decide whether to accept the case, or if it did, how quickly the matter could be resolved.

The appeal could have broad ramifications for other pending water disputes among the three states.

Florida and Alabama, for example, say the appeals court ruling bolsters their argument that Georgia has no authority even for its current withdrawals from Lanier.

On Wednesday, a district court judge handling one of two major court fights between the states said he would decide the Lanier question first before getting into other details.

He said he did so because his decision could render the other disputes in the case "obsolete."

For years, Florida and Alabama have accused Georgia of withholding too much water from Lanier, parching the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river basin, which runs through Lanier and along the Georgia-Alabama border before spilling into the gulf in Florida's Apalachicola Bay.

They say Georgia reduces flows into their states that support power plants, commercial fisheries, endangered species and industrial users like paper mills.

Georgia argues it isn't getting enough water from the reservoir.

As a record drought threatened drinking water supplies last year, Georgia pressed the federal government for more, arguing that its needs are more pressing than the other states'.

The governors of the three states tried to work out a compromise earlier this year but failed.