Gov. Rick Scott files lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court against Georgia. (Photo via Flgov.com)

Gov. Rick Scott files lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court against Georgia. (Photo via Flgov.com)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia this week after a long-running dispute over water consumption.

Florida officials claim metropolitan parts of Georgia are using up water that should be flowing to the northwestern part of the state. The Associated Press reports:

The legal action filed directly with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday is an escalation in a legal dispute lasting more than two decades.

The lawsuit is not a surprise. Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced in August that the state would ask the high court to force Georgia to more equitably share water that flows downstream from Georgia into Alabama and Florida.

Scott’s move came after the oyster industry in Apalachicola Bay suffered a near collapse and after federal officials declared a fishery disaster for oystermen on the Gulf Coast. Oysters need a mix of fresh and salt water in order to thrive.

“Georgia has refused to fairly share the waters that flow between our two states, so to stop Georgia’s unmitigated consumption of water we have brought the matter before the U.S. Supreme Court,” Scott said in a statement.

As Bloomberg reported back in August, the dispute has now come to a head and Scott is seeking legal recourse:

The dispute is fueled by the rapid growth of the metropolitan area surrounding Atlanta, which is demanding more water and hurting the oyster industry in Northwest Florida, Florida Governor Rick Scott, 60, said yesterday. Scott, a Republican, said he would file suit next month after the two states couldn’t reach an agreement.

“That’s our water,” Scott told reporters while standing next to the Apalachicola Bay in the Florida Panhandle. “They’ve impacted our families. They’ve impacted the livelihood of people down here.”

For more than 20 years, Florida, Georgia and Alabama have been mired in negotiations over the distribution of water shared by the three states. The dispute is emblematic of an increasingly common challenge facing cities and states across the country: Demand for water is outpacing supply as urban development and population growth sap resources.

Urban development in Georgia has led to an increased need for water, much of it pumped from a river basin that’s also relied on by Florida and Alabama.

According to a local news organization, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal’s office said: “The only ‘unmitigated consumption’ going on around here is Florida’s waste of our tax dollars on a frivolous lawsuit.”

“Florida is receiving historically high water flows at the state line this year, but it needs a bogeyman to blame for its poor management of Apalachicola Bay. Our conservation efforts have decreased metro Atlanta’s water use even as our population has grown substantially, and Georgia offered a framework for an agreement which never received a response from Florida. This lawsuit is political theater and nothing more. We’ve won consistently in court and will defend Georgia’s water rights vigorously in the Supreme Court, because our case is the only one with any merit.”

The renewed interest in fighting Georgia’s water consumption comes at the heels of news surfacing that the oyster industry in Apalachicola Bay had collapsed over the past year.

According to Bloomberg, “the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a fishery disaster declaration on Aug. 12 over oysters.”