On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision on special master Ralph Lancaster’s Feb. 14, 2017, report in the Florida v. Georgia equitable apportionment case regarding the waters of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin. The report followed a lengthy discovery process and five-week hearing.
In his report, the special master recommended to the Supreme Court that it dismiss Florida’s claims due to the absence of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a party to the litigation. This dismissal recommendation was made notwithstanding the special master’s conclusion that excessive agriculture industry irrigation use of interconnected groundwater and surface water in the lower Flint River watershed of southwest Georgia has resulted in depletion of Flint River flows, with corresponding depletion of flows into the Apalachicola River. But because the corps has managed its reservoirs on the Chattahoochee River to adjust Apalachicola River flows, the special master concluded that, without the corps as a party, an effective remedy could not be fashioned to provide redress to Florida.
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