The Lake Lanier Association has filed legal motions against both the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Army Corps of Engineers.
The Association’s legal actions are part of the “Water Wars” dispute in which Georgia, Florida and Alabama are struggling for the right to withdraw water from Lake Lanier.
Their complaint against the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is based on their reading of the Endangered Species Act. The USFWS has used the act to ensure that water from Lake Lanier reaches the Gulf of Mexico to protect the habitat of mussels in the area. The Lake Lanier Association believes the USFWS is reading the ESA too aggressively.
The Association is also moving against the Army Corps of Engineers for failing to do proper research and update their documents on managing Lake Lanier. This means that “decisionmakers in the ACF Basin have never been presented with a thorough and comprehensive analysis of alternatives for the management of the Corps’ reservoir system.” The Association would like to the Corps to prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement that could be used to resolve the Water Wars to the satisfaction of all three states.
The full text of the motion is below: