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Interstate Water War Redux?

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The Associated Press

Published: October 26, 2007

Allowing Georgia to fight drought by slowing water flow into Florida would imperil commercial fishing along the Florida Panhandle, Gov. Charlie Crist argues in a letter to President Bush.

Crist urged Bush not to let Georgia move forward with a water-saving plan to slow the flow from reservoirs into waterways that eventually reach Florida.

Georgia last week sued the Army Corps of Engineers to force it to curb the release of water from North Georgia lakes into rivers that empty into the Gulf of Mexico through the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin.

Georgia officials want to reduce the depletion of reservoir levels into early next year so that no more water flows out than is coming in. The state's governor, Sonny Perdue, also has asked Bush to order that the release of Georgia water be reduced.

Doing so would adversely affect the Apalachicola River and Apalachicola Bay, "resulting in a profound disruption of the socio-economic foundation in Florida's Panhandle region," Crist wrote in the letter to Bush, dated Wednesday.

Florida, Alabama and Georgia have been in a dispute for years over how to manage the water that flows from north Georgia into the other two states on its way to the Gulf. As metro Atlanta has grown, the problem has grown, too, with one of the major lakes in that area, Lake Lanier, serving as the main source of drinking water for the city.

Now the problem is exacerbated by a drought that is gripping much of the Southeast and is so bad in Georgia that officials banned watering in most of the state.

"The Apalachicola River and bay support a multimillion dollar commercial fishing industry," Crist wrote. The area's economy is heavily tied to fishing and oystering in the bay, estimated to contribute to more than $130 million in yearly economic output.

Biologists and oystermen say the bay, which produces 90 percent of the oysters harvested in Florida, needs a mix of salty Gulf water and fresh river water.

"This bay survives on fresh water coming down the river; that's what makes oysters," said David Barber of oyster producer Barber's Seafood in Eastpoint, at the east end of the bay. "And without an even flow, like God almighty made it to be, you start shutting it off when you need it and turning it loose when you don't need it. Then that kills our business down here.

"If you shut the water off upriver, then everything here will just die," Barber said.

"Recent data shows this industry is already being jeopardized as a result of reduced inflows," Crist wrote. "Further reductions would only hasten the decline of this important component of Florida's economy."

White House Council on Environmental Quality spokeswoman Kristen Hellmer said federal officials would work with the states to try to resolve the disagreement and that no decision had been made on whether Georgia should be allowed to reduce water flows.

In the meantime, several federal agencies are working to help the states "make sure that water gets to the people that need it without ... creating unintended consequences for the people of Alabama or Florida," Hellmer said.

Crist said Florida, Alabama and Georgia need to work together on research into alternative water sources, noting that Florida has been studying desalination and additional conservation programs.

"Reacting to the concerns of an upstream state to suspend environmental laws unilaterally at the expense of a downstream state's ecology and economy cannot be justified in any circumstance," Crist wrote to Bush.

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