Water ruling stays

Remember a few months ago when Florida and Alabama beat Georgia in that court battle in the water wars over the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint rivers system?

Well, a U.S. District Appeals Judge upheld the ruling on Friday and denied Georgia's appeal for a rehearing of the case.

The U.S. Court of Appeals had ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers overstepped its authority five years ago when it granted Georgia additional water rights that affected rivers in Florida and Alabama.

Florida said the decision levels the playing field" in a multistate tug-of-war over water that spans nearly 20 years. Now the court battle is probably over, lawyers say.

Comments

[Barack Hussein Obama]

So what if another state goes thirsty! As long as we have mussels in the Apalachicola, they can drink Zephyrhills water.

[Chris W]

You know, Atlanta *could* have told the developers "NO" when they wanted to overbuild and cram in more people than the water supply could support. But that would have required politicians to operate in the public interest instead of their biggest contributors or most loud-mouth activist groups.

Atlanta is going to go "thirsty" - they could turn off all the decorative fountains, reduce lawn watering and fix their leaky pipes!!! They could, like others have done, install low flow toilets and showers. Basically, they could quit squandering so that others can live - and by the way, if the mussels die, that means that upstream other bellwether species will die to.

By the way, just in case you don't know what a bellwether species is, it is a species that indicates the life sustaining abilities of the environment. We may be at the top of the foodchain but that means we need a life sustaning environment too to survive!

Only a fool fouls the pond from which he drinks!

[Donald Lance]

8:43. I think you are trying to say that a mussel is more important than humans. We must do everything possible, at the expense of humans, to save the mussel? Just so you know, the mussel is meaningless to the people of Appalachicola bay, where the river ends. The debate is about the RIVER upstream. They could hold back millions of gallons of water and still not affect the mussels in the river.

There is no water shortage, only water politics.

Riverkeepers of the Apalachicola celebrate.

@ Donald

I would save the mussel before I cared about a human. Humans do more harm to themselves, their environment, and others. As humans we have a choice, and typically those choices are driven by greed and the feeling of entitlement. We are reckless and greedy. If Humans stopped and thought a second before they just slap up new sub-divisions, condos etc... we wouldn't be in half the messes we are in now.

As someone else mentioned, if they didn't allow more people in that the water supply could support, they wouldn't be in this mess. But know, the almighty dollar was there. So, I say f'em live with your mistake and your greed. Go thirsty morons.

There is no water shortage, only water politics.