Florida’s newly re-elected Governor Rick Scott — who reportedly spent $100 million on his campaign to beat former Florida Governor Charlie Crist, which Scott won by the slimmest of margins — has had a busy week. On Monday, November 3rd, Scott boasted that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to listen to Florida’s appeal to another lawsuit against Georgia in what has become known as the “Water Wars.”
Florida Congressman Steve Southerland chimed in and said, “This marks a big step forward for the North Florida families who live and work along Apalachicola Bay. Georgia has stolen our water for far too long, and I’m pleased the Supreme Court is prepared to consider a resolution to the crisis. As Floridians, we have an obligation to continue fighting for the people, jobs, and treasured heritage of Apalachicola Bay.”
It is worth noting that Southerland — a funeral home director — was defeated in his bid for re-election on Tuesday, November 4th.
Our friends at the Lake Lanier Association have crafted a response to what many believe is a frivolous and wasteful drain on the court system brought by our neighbors to the south.
The attorney for the Lake Lanier Association, Clyde Morris, drafted this considered opinion:
WATER WARS II
Lake Lanier’s Own Version of “WW II”
About a year ago, Florida asked for permission to file suit against Georgia in the Supreme Court of the United States, asking the high court to equitably apportion the waters of the ACF in a way that would send more water to Florida. This week, the Court granted Florida leave to file its Complaint against Georgia and gave Georgia thirty days to file its Answer.
This case is about “equitable apportionment,” which at its most fundamental level is about how much of the ACF’s water each state is entitled to use by law. To quote one excerpt from Florida’s Complaint:
50. The existing storage, evaporation, and consumption of water by Georgia’s municipal, industrial, recreational, and agricultural users have diminished the amount of water entering Florida in spring and summer of drought years by as much as 3,000-4,000 cubic feet per second (“cfs”). This has altered the flow regime of the Apalachicola River during the most vulnerable times for riverine and estuarine species. In recent drought years, Apalachicola River flows averaged less than 5,500 cfs throughout the entire late-spring-summer-fall period from May through December. Such long durations of extremely low flows were unprecedented before 2000.
So, the challenge is all about the amount of ACF flow to which Florida is entitled, which in turn is fundamental to the LLA’s mission of “Full Lake” (and spurred the LLA to dive into the Water Wars previously). To quote a portion of Florida’s Prayer for Relief:
Florida further prays that the Court enter an order enjoining Georgia, its privies, assigns, lessees, and other persons claiming under it, from interfering with Florida’s rights, and capping Georgia’s overall
depletive water uses at the level then existing on January 3, 1992.
In determining whether to cap “Georgia’s overall depletive water uses at the level then existing on January 3, 1992,” the Supreme Court will consider the uses to which the State of Georgia and the Corps of Engineers now put the waters of the ACF, as well as the uses for which Florida seeks to obtain more of that water.
The fact that there is an original jurisdiction, equitable apportionment case in the Supreme Court of the United States that could determine forever how much of the water in the ACF we may be able to keep and use is of august importance to everyone in Georgia, and especially to those who are concerned about Lake Lanier. And while it is perhaps hard to imagine this beautiful lake, which supports millions of people, being drained to prop up a desirable but tenuous oyster farming operation in the Gulf of Mexico that has recently been the victim of Florida’s overharvesting as much as nature’s droughts, that is the proposition that has been laid before this nation’s highest court.
We will periodically update membership on the case via the LLA website and newsletter. But for now, it is most important to recognize the critical importance of Florida’s legal action and the extensive repercussions that could result on Lake Lanier.
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Click Here for Governor Scott’s Water Wars Press Release
