Going along with a request from Florida’s attorneys, a federal judge will hear arguments in December in a long-running water war between Florida and Georgia.

Senior U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Judge Paul J. Kelly Jr., who was appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court to serve as a special master in the case, has scheduled oral arguments Dec. 16, according to an order issued last week. Kelly, who is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will hear arguments in an Albuquerque courtroom, nearly 1,500 miles from Northwest Florida’s Apalachicola Bay, a key area in the case.