Water Wars: Georgia’s sweeping victory gives state a fair shake Read more: Cherokee Tribune - Water Wars Georgia’s sweeping victory gives state a fair shake

Thursday 30 June 2011

                                                               Georgia has won a sweeping victory in the tri-state water war with a federal appeals court reversing the ill-conceived ruling of a district court judge that jeopardized metro Atlanta’s water supply.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that one of the purposes of Lake Lanier is to supply water to metro Atlanta, overturning a 2009 ruling to the contrary by federal district Judge Paul Magnuson of Minnesota. He declared the original purposes of the lake were limited to flood control, navigation and hydroelectric power. Unless Georgia, Alabama and Florida worked out a water-sharing agreement by July 2012, he ruled that Atlanta withdrawals from Lanier must return to 1975 levels, “a Draconian result,” by his own admission.

To call Magnuson’s decision shocking would be an understatement. It hit Georgia officials like a ton of judicial bricks and put our state at a tremendous disadvantage in trying the work out an agreement with the other two states. It appeared that Alabama and Florida merely had to sit tight and let Georgia swing in the wind.

Magnuson even tried to cut off Georgia’s water on another front, refusing to enter a final judgment to preclude any appeal by the state. But the 11th Circuit brushed that cheap tactic aside and took the case — to the benefit of justice. 

In its ruling, the appellant panel rejected Magnuson’s wrong-headed decision in denying Atlanta water rights, pointing out the absurdity of his conclusion. The court said that before the dam was built, the Chattahoochee provided most of the water for the Atlanta area, a telling point of fact and common sense. 

“Congress very clearly did not intend the dam to harm the city’s water supply,” the court said. Moreover, the language of the Rivers and Harbors Act under which the dam was constructed “clearly indicates that water supply was an authorized purpose,” the court held. Essentially, the panel soundly rejected Magnuson’s tortured reasoning by which he justified his ruling. 

The court set a one-year deadline for the Corps of Engineers to come up with a water allocation plan, demonstrating a welcome sense of urgency about getting the two-decades-long dispute settled. The court said progress in determining the future operations of Buford Dam on Lake Lanier “is of utmost importance to the millions of power customers and water users that are affected…. The stakes are extremely high, and all parties are entitled to a prompt resolution.” 

Not surprisingly, the ink was hardly dry on the decision before Alabama’s knee-jerk reaction came. Gov. Robert Bentley’s press office said the ruling will be appealed to the entire 11th Circuit bench. But it seems unlikely that the full court will be inclined to reverse a unanimous decision by the three judges.

If the ruling stands, as it should, Georgia will be able to negotiate from a position of strength in trying to work out a reasonable water-sharing agreement with its neighbors. And that’s what this war has been all about — giving Georgia a fair shake.

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