Alabama and Florida turned up the heat Monday in their long-simmering fight with Georgia over water.
The states filed petitions with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of an appellate court decision in June that gave metro Atlanta rights to water from Lake Lanier.
The action reinvigorates a 20-year fight over releases from Georgia reservoirs that flow to its downstream neighbors.
The renewed litigation will likely delay work on an operations manual that would establish the metro area's share of water from the federal reservoirs at Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona, said Lisa Coghlan, deputy public affairs officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The corps is under court order to complete the manuals by June.
It may also impair development in North Georgia.
"I think it's unfortunate that they continue to fight our right to use the water that falls in our state," said Boyd Austin, chairman of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, which sets water policy for 15 counties and more than 90 cities in metro Atlanta.
"Our people need it, it's a life-dependency issue," he said. "Everything about our future growth and economic development is dependent on it."
Georgia's downstream neighbors are hoping to reverse a ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in June that overturned a 2009 decision by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson, who said the Atlanta area had no right to water in the federal reservoir. Magnuson had given the states until this summer to reach agreement on downstream releases or he would pull metro Atlanta's access to the lake, leaving some 3.5 million people without a source of water.
Congress authorized construction of Lake Lanier in 1946, and the states are arguing that the appellate court had no right to redirect the intent of that legislation. In deciding for Georgia, they argue, the appellate court overrode the corps’ established understanding of the meaning of its own plans, which did not include allocating space for water supply to Atlanta
"For 60 years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has consistently stated that its original plans for Lake Lanier did not intend for any part of the reservoir to be dedicated to the Atlanta area’s water supply," said Jeremy King, a spokesman for Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley. "No other court of appeals in the country has overridden an agency’s viewpoint in similar circumstances, so this is the type of case the Supreme Court needs to review.”
The Florida governor's office said its petition was filed through its Department of Environmental Protection.
"Florida is concerned that [the] 11th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision could deprive Florida of its fair share of water," DEP spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller said in a statement. "DEP understands that the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River System is important to Florida, Georgia and Alabama, and we believe all three states can share the waters and meet their states’ unique needs."
Georgia has 30 days to file a brief presenting any reasons the high court should not review the case.
"We believe that the 11th Circuit ruling was correct, and we are confident that the Supreme Court will agree," said Lauren Kane, a spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens.
Each year, the Supreme Court receives close to 8,000 petitions for case review. It grants and hears argument in about 1 percent of those, according to the clerk's office.
About the Author
