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Florida wants courts to settle water battle

The Sunshine State backs out of a tentative deal with Alabama and Georgia over sharing a vital river basin.

JACKSONVILLE - After failing to reach a water-sharing agreement with Alabama and Georgia, Florida said Monday it will ask the courts to decide how much water each state should receive from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin.

The issue concerns the water needs of metropolitan Atlanta, farms in southwest Georgia and the oyster-rich Apalachicola Bay in Florida, which supplies 90 percent of Florida's oysters and 10 percent of the nation's.

The three states' governors had approved a tentative agreement in July, setting a midnight Sunday deadline for a final plan. Instead of extending the deadline, Florida decided it would leave the water-sharing decision to federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. The states have debated the water-sharing issue for five years.

Florida said it backed out of the deal because it would not have received enough water.

"In the end, Florida was unable to accept only minimum flows, plus whatever else the upstream states were not able to consume or store. This would place too great a risk on one of the most naturally productive rivers and bays in the United States," said David Struhs, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in a telephone conference call Monday.

As a result, the issue will have to be settled in three federal court lawsuits in Alabama, Georgia and the District of Columbia. Officials also said they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court this fall to determine how much water each state should receive.

Trey Glenn, director of Alabama's Office of Water Resources, said that state's officials are disappointed by Florida's action.

"Florida's been threatening for years now to pull the plug. It seems like their recent proposal and ultimatum was a way to do that," he said.

Dan McLagan, a spokesman for Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, also expressed disappointment.

The Florida Legislature has appropriated money to begin the legal battle, Struhs said.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had voiced reservations about the tentative agreement over how much water Georgia would leave in the Chattahoochee River. It joins the Flint River at Lake Seminole to flow into Florida's Apalachicola River and into Apalachicola Bay.

On Friday, Perdue asked Florida to back down on its demand for a say in how much water Georgia can take out of its own lakes to quench the thirst of a growing Atlanta.

In a letter to Bush, Perdue said he was ready to break off the water-sharing talks unless Florida allows Atlanta to take as much water as it needs for the next 10 to 20 years.