An update on the tri-state water wars

An important turning point in the pre-existing litigation over water resources in the ACF River Basin came in 2011, when the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed and vacated a 2009 District Court ruling from the Middle District of Florida.D The Eleventh Circuit held that the District Court lacked jurisdiction over claims made by Alabama, Southeastern Federal Power Customers, and Apalachicola because they did not challenge final agency action by the Corps as required by the Administrative Procedure Act. The Eleventh Circuit found that Congress, in the River and Harbor Act of 1946, had unambiguously provided that the Buford Dam ProjectE would be operated to accommodate downstream water supply demands and, therefore, allowed an allocation of storage in Lake Lanier for that purpose. The Corps was given one year (until June 2012) to arrive at a well-reasoned, definitive, and final judgment as to its authority to reallocate storage in Lake Lanier to water supply. The United States Supreme Court declined a request from Alabama and Florida to review the Eleventh Circuit ruling that water supply is an authorized purpose of Lake Lanier. By declining the states’ request, the Supreme Court effectively affirmed the Eleventh Circuit ruling, putting an end to the litigation over the ACF River Basin.