Deal jokes about Florida’s ‘hard time’ in water battle against Georgia

Gov. Nathan Deal speaks at Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful’s 11th Annual Environmental Address at the Infinite Energy Center in Duluth Wednesday. Deal boasted on Georgia’s improving numbers in several aspects of the state’s environmental awareness and progress. (CASEY SYKES / CASEY.SYKES@AJC.COM)

Gov. Nathan Deal speaks at Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful’s 11th Annual Environmental Address at the Infinite Energy Center in Duluth Wednesday. Deal boasted on Georgia’s improving numbers in several aspects of the state’s environmental awareness and progress. (CASEY SYKES / CASEY.SYKES@AJC.COM)

A day after the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear oral arguments in the ongoing water battle between Georgia and Florida, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal seemed to like his state's chances.

During an annual environmental address at the Infinite Energy Center in Duluth, Deal rattled off statistics about Georgia and metro Atlanta’s reduction in per capita water use in recent years. He called those numbers and others “a pretty good indication of why the state of Florida had such a hard time in the suit they filed against us.”

“We hope that that will continue to go well,” Deal said during his 25-minute speech, an annual event organized by nonprofit advocacy group Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful. “We think that Georgia has a good story to tell.”

The Supreme Court announced Tuesday it would hear Georgia's years-long water rights battle with Florida during its current term, which will stretch until June or July.

Florida has called for strict new water consumption limits to be placed on Georgia, but a special master appointed by the Supreme Court has recommended justices reject that call.

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