Posted
August 22, 2013
It’s Florida vs. Georgia in a battle with implications
for Alabama, and, believe it or not, this time it’s not about football. It’s about water, and a huge dispute over key
resource is escalating.
Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott (R) and Sen. Marco Rubio
(R-FL) recently announced that the state will file a lawsuit in the U.S.
Supreme Court over an ongoing water dispute with Georgia, according to the
Governor’s press release, available here.
According to the press release, “Apalachicola River
water levels are directly impacted by upstream withdrawals from the
Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers at all times – especially apparent during
low-flow summer and fall seasons.” The
Atlanta metro area “primarily gets its water from the Chattahoochee River with
withdrawals totaling 360 million gallons per day” and Georgia’s consumption is
“expected to nearly double to 705 million gallons per day by 2035.” Gov. Scott argues that this “excessive
consumption” has created “historically low water levels” causing “oysters to
die because of higher salinity in the Bay and increased disease and predator intrusion.”
Last September, Gov. Scott asked the U.S. Department of
Commerce to declare a Commercial Fisheries Failure for the Apalachicola
Bay. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker
recently declared the Commercial Fisheries Failure, the NOAA press release is
available here.
The Florida
Current reports that Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal stated that “Scott’s
announcement was political and Florida had failed to his state’s proposed
comprehensive framework for a water agreement.”
According to the Florida Current article, available here, Florida
will ask the Supreme Court “directly to decide an equitable allocation of water
among Alabama, Florida and Georgia.”
Robin Kundis Craig, a University of Utah law professor, said the
“Supreme Court is reluctant to get involved in such cases” with the Court
apportioning “water only in three cases, the last being Nebraska versus Wyoming
in 1945.” Craig continued, stating that
“even if the Supreme Court decides to get involved”, Florida “will face the
challenge of arguing its environmental needs against Georgia’s arguments for
water for cities and their thirsty residents.”
The allocation of surface water depends on state
law. Three different allocation systems
have developed in the United States: the riparian doctrine, the system of prior
appropriation, and a hybrid of riparian and prior appropriation. For more information on water law and
allocation of water under state law, please visit the National
Agriculture Law Center’s Water Law Reading Room.
