Judge: States' water talks can be secret

By Jeremy Redmon

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal judge has granted a request from Georgia, Florida and Alabama to keep their water rights negotiations secret.

In an order this week, Federal District Court Judge Paul Magnuson said “a settlement of such a complicated and inflammatory case such as this can occur only if some negotiations, whether among all parties or among only some of the parties, are conducted privately.”

Magnuson’s order applies to all documents exchanged and statements made during the negotiations.

Some observers disagree with the secrecy, including the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, a Georgia water protection organization, and the executive committee of the ACF Stakeholders.

“We would have liked to have seen the negotiations take place in the public. What is it exactly that has to be concealed?” said April Ingle, executive director of the Georgia River Network, an Athens-based river protection group. “People are really concerned and interested and want to know about the decisions that are being made and want an opportunity to be a part of the process.”

It is not uncommon, however, for judges to order confidentiality in settlement talks, and such an order was signed by a different judge in the same water rights case several years ago, said Bruce Brown, an attorney with McKenna Long & Aldridge who is helping represent Georgia in the case.

“It is very typical for settlement discussions to be held confidential and for the judge who is overseeing the case or involved in the settlement discussion to enter such an order,” Brown said.

Magnuson stunned Georgia officials in July when he ruled the state has little rights to Lake Lanier, a federal reservoir. The judge has given the states and Congress three years to reach a compromise before restricting access to drinking water from the lake to levels from the mid-1970s, when Atlanta was a fraction of its current size.