U.S. Water News Online
MIAMI -- A tri-state water rights fight is before a U.S. appeals court in Miami.
In the latest chapter in a 15-year battle, lawyers for Georgia and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say a federal judge in Alabama has overstepped her authority by blocking their agreement on Atlanta's use of Lake Lanier.
But Alabama and Florida say the agreement was properly halted. Their attorneys say the deal violated a 1990 court ruling that has governed the case because it was done in secret and violated numerous federal laws and regulations.
The agreement between Georgia and the Corps of Engineers would allow Atlanta to draw about 210 million additional gallons of water each day from Lake Lanier. That would reportedly be enough to meet Atlanta's projected population growth for another decade.
Alabama, Florida and cities downstream from Atlanta contend the city's water needs jeopardize their environmental and economic interests.
The Chattahoochee River flows from Lake Lanier along the Alabama-Georgia border, then joins with Georgia's Flint River to form the Apalachicola River, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
The case would still be appealed to the full Eleventh Circuit and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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