And, just like that, the Georgia-Alabama-Florida water war is back in the news.
A federal judge in D.C. has ruled in favor of Georgia, the Corps of Engineers, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), and the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority in a dispute over allocation of water from Lake Allatoona.
You can read the full 38-page ruling here: MEMORANDUM OPINION regarding Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment 156 , Defendant’s Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment 158 , and Intervenor-Defendants’ Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment 159 161 . See Opinion for details. Signed by Judge Loren L. AliKhan on 3/31/2025. (lclla3)
In Georgia’s other long-running water wars battle with the Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court also sided with Georgia, ruling in 2021 that Florida failed to prove its allegations that Georgia’s water consumption from the Chattahoochee and Flint river systems, which include Lake Lanier, caused the failure of Florida’s oyster industry in Apalachicola Bay.
Representatives of water supply systems in Gwinnett, Forsyth and Hall counties finalized an agreement with the Georgia the following year guaranteeing them water from Lake Lanier through 2050.
