Florida To Sue Georgia In Water Fight

August 14, 2013

Gov. Rick Scott announced Tuesday that Florida will file a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court as part of a long-running battle with Georgia over water consumption.

The announcement came shortly after a U.S. Senate field hearing in Franklin County about the collapse of the seafood industry in Apalachicola Bay, with Florida senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio conducting the hearing.

The lawsuit is the latest move in a 23-year dispute among Florida, Georgia and Alabama over the water in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin.

Florida has long argued that water use at the top of the system, in the metro Atlanta area, has reduced the downstream flow of freshwater to the Apalachicola Bay region, damaging northwest Florida’s critical oyster industry. Both Florida and Alabama contend that too much water is siphoned off upstream for Atlanta’s drinking-water supply

Last year, the Apalachicola Bay collapsed. The lack of freshwater combined with a historic drought to produce the lowest flows in 89 years — since they have been recorded. That followed a series of court rulings that sent the responsibility for regulating the flows back to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“It’s having a dramatic impact, and it’s because Georgia has taken our water,” Scott said. “The Corps of Engineers is not worried about us. That’s why Florida’s going to file suit against Georgia. Take this all this way to the Supreme Court.”

Scott called the lawsuit “our only way forward after 20 years of failed negotiations with Georgia.” Under federal law, a lawsuit between states can only be brought as an original action in the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal called the move a frivolous waste of time and money when Georgia has waited more than a year for Florida to respond to a settlement proposal.

“Gov. Scott’s threat to sue my state in the U.S. Supreme Court greatly disappoints me after I negotiated in good faith for two years,” Deal said in a prepared statement. “More than a year ago, I offered a framework for a comprehensive agreement. Florida never responded. It’s absurd to waste taxpayers’ money and prolong this process with a court battle when I’ve proposed a workable solution.”

The Corps of Engineers, which controls the flows, relies on a 2011 ruling from a federal appeals court that says Georgia has a legal right to water from Lake Lanier, at the top of the river system. The ruling overturned a federal magistrate’s 2009 ruling in favor of Florida and Alabama.

Florida has asked Congress for help getting the Corps of Engineers to release more water downstream, to no avail.

The Atlanta area uses 360 million gallons of water per day, according to the governor’s office, and Georgia’s consumption is expected to nearly double to 705 million gallons per day by 2035 — about the entire amount of water in the Apalachicola Bay.

In his opening remarks during the hearing, Nelson said the Apalachicola River and bay are the “true economic engines of this region. Without more freshwater, this region’s economy could find itself in jeopardy to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Jonathan Steverson, executive director of the Northwest Florida Water Management District, told Nelson and Rubio that Georgia’s consumption has increased to more than 90 percent of the water from the river system. Florida, in contrast, uses 2.5 percent.

He also said the formula for allocating water was weighted toward Georgia.

“Georgia is getting its piece first,” Steverson said. “The good lord giveth and Georgia and the court taketh away.”

A reworking of the formula allocating the flows is waiting for the Corps of Engineers to prepare a new environmental impact statement for the river system.

Representing the corps at Tuesday’s hearing, Col. Jon Chytka said the final version of the statement wouldn’t be complete until early 2016.

“The reason we don’t think we can expedite it is the technical complexities,” he said.

“Anything that needs to be expedited can be expedited,” returned Nelson. He asked Chytka what it would take to “get it done quickly.”

“Sir, we have to follow the law,” Chytka replied.

The hearing drew an overflow crowd and was preceded by a rally on the courthouse steps.

Historically, the Apalachicola River and bay have been major economic drivers for the region, producing 90 percent of Florida’s oysters and 10 percent of the nation’s supply. The commercial and recreational fishing industries of the river basin generate $200 million a year and support 85 percent of the local population, according to the Seafood Management Assistance Resource and Recovery Team, a group of seafood workers and buyers.

The bay’s waters also have made rural Franklin County a destination for seafood-loving tourists. But the quality of the seafood depends on a mix of freshwater and saltwater that can’t be achieved without the release of freshwater upstream.

Witnesses at the hearing said the seafood industry is being harmed because the freshwater flows are too low.

Fourth-generation oystermen Shannon Hartsfield and Ricky Banks testified to the devastating impact of the low flows on the local workforce. Banks said three of his family members had been forced to leave the state to find work.

The oystermen were glad for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s announcement on Monday that it will issue a fishery disaster declaration for Florida’s oyster harvesting area in the Gulf of Mexico. But they warned that only increased freshwater flows would keep their way of life intact.

“We’re used to doing it on our own,” Banks said. “But we’ve come up against something we have no control over.”

After the hearing, Rubio and Scott toured the riverfront and sampled fresh oysters on the dock with Republican Congressman Steve Southerland, who represents the area.

Scott said Alabama hadn’t yet decided whether to join the lawsuit.

Other Florida leaders supported the lawsuit. Bondi, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford released statements praising Scott.

“We don’t like to sue our neighbors,” Gaetz said. “But their intransigence has left us no other course.”

By Margie Menzel, The News Service of Florida

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under General