Florida v Georgia, (2018), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in an original jurisdiction case. It involves a long-running dispute over waters within the ACF River Basin, running from the north Georgia mountains through metro Atlanta to the Florida panhandle, which is managed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Waters in the area have been stressed by the population growth of Atlanta over previous decades. The immediate case stemmed from droughts in 2011 and 2012 that caused economic damage to Florida due to lower water flows from the ACF River Basin into the panhandle, impacting its seafood production; Florida sought relief to have more water allocated towards them from the ACF by placing a water allocation cap on Georgia. The Supreme Court assigned a special master to review Florida's complaint, but ultimately found in 2016 that Florida had not fully demonstrated the need for more allocation. Florida challenged this determination to the Supreme Court. On June 27, 2018, the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that the special master had not properly considered Florida's argument and remanded the case to be reheard and reviewed.
Subsequently, the court replaced the special master, who later ruled against Florida in the dispute. Florida challenged the conclusions of the special master's report, but the Supreme Court overruled Florida's exceptions and unanimously dismissed the case in Florida v Georgia, (2021).
Background.
The case involves the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin, which includes three major rivers in the southeast United States. The Chattahoochee River runs from the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains in northern Georgia and runs south-southwest and towards the Gulf of Mexico; it forms the state border between Georgia and Alabama. The Flint River forms from groundwater seepage in northern Georgia, and also runs south-southwest until it meets with the Chattahoochee at the southern edge of both Georgia and Alabama. The combined rivers become the Apalachicola River which then crosses Florida's panhandle and empties into Apalachicola Bay, an estuary abutting the Gulf. Besides serving as water sources for various municipal water systems, the ACF River Basin also provides significant quantities of water for agricultural irrigation, and numerous wildlife species reside along the rivers, particularly within the Bay.
With approval from Congress, the United States Army Corps of Engineers completed Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee in Georgia in the 1950s that created the reservoir Lake Lanier. This was intended to help manage the water flow along the Chattahoochee so that it could be used for both hydroelectric power and for water-borne transport through a series of locks, as well as for flood control.
In the second half of the 20th century, Atlanta saw a significant boost in population growth, stressing its water supply that was also coupled with droughts. The Corps, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the state of Georgia, and the Atlanta Regional Commission conducted a study in 1989 to determine that to meet Atlanta's water needs in the future, the city could be offered the right to purchase some of the water stored in Lake Lanier as long as the city and state paid for the costs of constructing and operating the offtake from the lake to metro Atlanta. The Corps determined that there was no significant environmental impact of this approach.
