FROM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
By MARGIE MENZEL
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, May 8, 2015……….A symposium on the Apalachicola Bay and Apalachicola River ended Friday with scientists delving into some of the same issues that a special master appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court is now considering — how to fairly distribute water among oystermen, a major U.S. city, the environment and three states.
The Supreme Court agreed in November to consider a lawsuit filed by Florida against Georgia, aimed at increasing the amount of freshwater flowing from the top of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system, in north Georgia, downstream to the Florida Panhandle’s Apalachicola Bay.
Florida is seeking an “equitable apportionment” of water from the river system and has long contended that Georgia takes too much water from the Chattahoochee River to meet Atlanta’s growing demand.
“Water is the new oil,” said Jennifer Cherrier, a professor at Florida A&M University, where the symposium took place.
The lawsuit wasn’t the focus of the forum, which drew mainly environmentalists and academics. The presentations centered on topics such as water-quality standards known as numeric nutrient criteria and potential for microbial degradation of oil in the Apalachicola River Basin.
The health of the bay and river was the scientists’ biggest concern. The bay collapsed in 2012, and since then, many oystermen have had to leave the area to find work. As a sign of the severity of the problems, the area has been declared a fishery-resource disaster by the federal government since August 2013.
According to Robert “Skip” Livingston, a retired Florida State University professor, the river and bay have suffered more frequent droughts, of longer duration, since 1980 and the ecosystem has taken longer to recover from them.
Livingston blamed climate change.
“These data show that something has also happened to the pattern of the river flow, and that’s very critical to the bay,” he said. “The Apalachicola is in great trouble today if this pattern goes on.”
But the final presenter — attorney Mo Jazil of the firm Hopping Green and Sams, who gave an update on the lawsuit before the high court — sparked a discussion that continued past the forum’s scheduled close.
Jazil noted that Florida’s litigation with Georgia stretches back 25 years, through multiple administrations in both states and Alabama, which has sided with Florida in past lawsuits but declined to join the current one.
He also said that several of Florida’s expert witnesses had given affidavits to the special master, Ralph I. Lancaster, pointing to Atlanta’s excessive use of water.
But even if Livingston was right, Jazil continued, and there is less water for everyone, “Should Florida not have our fair share of the pie?”
Afterward, Dan Tonsmeire of Apalachicola Riverkeeper, an advocacy group that has fought for increased flows to the bay, said Livingston’s data are consistent with what he’s seeing in the river basin.
“I think it’s 100 percent correct in terms of more frequent droughts,” Tonsmeire said. “But whether it’s cyclical or whether it’s going to be here forever … we need to figure out how everyone can be sustainable through these dry conditions as we see them coming.”
Even as Florida has pursued its case, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal in March asked to meet with Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley to try to reach agreement in the long-running battle over the river system.
Scott replied to Deal’s letter by asking him to submit a proposal for a potential meeting. Deal met with Bentley on March 16, but so far no meeting with Scott has been set and no proposal has arrived from Georgia, according to a Scott spokeswoman.