A federal appeals court on February 5, 2008 ruled against an agreement that Georgia reached with the Army Corps of Engineers for water rights to Lake Lanier, handing Alabama and Florida a major victory in the states' years-long water wars.
The decision overturned an earlier ruling from 2003 that said Georgia could receive about a quarter of Lake Lanier's capacity over the coming decades as a drinking water source. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington said that the 2003 agreement constituted a major operational change at the federal reservoir that requires congressional approval.
The agreement was challenged by Alabama and Florida arguing that Georgia doesn't have any legal right to the Lake Lanier's water supply which was initially built as a federal reservoir for hydropower. Had the decision not been ruled against the withdrawels could have meant the drying up of river flows into Alabama and Florida that support smaller municipalities, power plants, commercial fisheries and industrial users like paper mills.
A spokesman for Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue told the Associated Press that Georgia has not ruled out appealing the decision to the US Supreme Court, but added that Georgia will continue discussions with Florida and Alabama, mediated by the federal government, to reach a mutually satisfactory water-sharing agreement.
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