Tri-State Water Wars (AL, GA, FL)
Background
The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint basin flows from northwest Georgia south along the border of Alabama and empties into Florida's Apalachicola Bay. The Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa basin also begins in northwest Georgia, and empties into Alabama's Mobile Bay. (In short-hand, these basins are referred to as ACF and ACT basins.)
Questions about the future allocation of the water resources from these basins have given rise to the so-called "tri-state water wars." Georgia, as the upstream user, wants to make sure it gets enough water to continue growing, particularly in booming metro Atlanta. Alabama, as a downstream user, is concerned that Atlanta and its sprawling suburbs will have an ever-increasing thirst for water from both basins that will severely limit growth in Alabama. And Florida, another downstream user, wants to ensure that enough freshwater from the ACF basin reaches the Apalachicola Bay to sustain the bay's multi-million dollar shellfish industry.
More than ten years ago, Alabama filed a lawsuit to protect its rights to this water, but the states agreed to postpone the lawsuit after negotiations led to a comprehensive study of the natural and economic resources of the basins. Based upon the information generated by the study, the states are negotiating a formula for allocating water among themselves.
The formula is being negotiated under the guidelines set forth in the interstate water compacts in the South (one for each basin), adopted as federal legislation in 1998, and the first-ever such compacts in the South. A federal commissioner to the compact must approve the states' agreement as conforming to federal laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. The original deadline of December 31, 1998 for the agreement has been extended several times.
