From the News Service of Florida
The U.S. Supreme Court could be close to deciding whether it will take up a water dispute between Florida and Georgia that has high stakes for Apalachicola Bay in Franklin County. Justices are scheduled to discuss the issue, along with other cases from across the country, during a closed-door conference Friday. During such conferences, the Supreme Court decides which cases it will hear. Florida filed a lawsuit last year in the Supreme Court as part of its long-running effort to get more freshwater flowing downstream from Georgia in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin. Florida has long argued that Georgia siphons too much water upstream for the Atlanta area’s water supply and that a lack of flow downstream has damaged the critical oyster industry in Apalachicola Bay. The Supreme Court early this year asked the U.S. solicitor general for an opinion about whether justices should hear the case. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli wrote last month that justices should postpone possible resolution of the dispute until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completes a revised master manual for operating the river system.