Alabama sides with Florida against Georgia in water wars

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed three years ago to hear Florida’s lawsuit which contends that Georgia does not allow an “equitable distribution” of the rivers. Alabama, a participant in earlier legal skirmishes in the so-called tri-state water war, filed a friend-of-the-court brief last week supporting Florida’s call for a cap on Georgia’s water use.

Florida wants as much as 40 percent more water from Georgia during a drought, the lawsuit says. Alabama’s brief calls a cap “appropriate.”

Alabama, also involved in a legal spat with Georgia over the Coosa River, has earlier taken on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which allows Metro Atlanta to pull copious amounts of water from Lake Lanier, a federal reservoir.

“As the population of metropolitan Atlanta has grown, Georgia largely has chosen not to invest its resources in reservoirs and other infrastructure that would facilitate the area’s water-supply demands,” Alabama wrote.

And, in an ominous prelude to additional water war litigation, Alabama says a cap on the Flint might not be the only water-resource harm coming Georgia’s way.

“Such a cap would not preclude Alabama from filing its own equitable apportionment action against Georgia should the need arise in the future,” the brief says. “In that equitable apportionment action Alabama could seek, among other relief, an additional cap on Georgia’s consumption from the Chattahoochee.”