Anniston Star – Alabama lawyer claims suburban Atlanta taking too much of Coosa s water

MONTGOMERY — A suburban Atlanta county has routinely taken more water than it’s allowed to take from a lake upstream of the Coosa River, claims Alabama’s lawyer in the tri-state “water wars.”

Cobb County, Ga., is violating its water permit and creating expensive problems for Alabamians who live downstream along the Coosa, said Matt Lembke, who represents Alabama in the long-running water dispute among Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

“It’s beyond dispute that the Atlanta area has no right to take the amount of water they’re taking,” Lembke told the members of the Alabama Water Resources Commission at their regular meeting in Montgomery on Thursday.

Alabama, Georgia and Florida have been embroiled for 25 years in disputes over the use of water from rivers the states share.

The Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint rivers drain from a basin that includes parts of Alabama and Georgia and empty into the Gulf of Mexico on the Florida coast. The Alabama, Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers in Alabama are fed by headwaters in Georgia. Atlanta’s use of water from both river basins to support the city’s growing population has spawned lengthy legal disputes among the three states.

Long dormant, those disputes have kicked up again in the last month. Florida filed suit with the U.S. Supreme Court in October, claiming Georgia was causing lower water levels that hurt the oyster industry in Apalachicola.

Alabama was mostly defeated in a court case against Georgia two years ago, though Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions pushed a bill in October that would have required congressional approval for any major changes in Georgia’s water use in the two basins. Congress rejected that wording, but is considering wording that would urge the three states to reach a resolution.

via Anniston Star – Alabama lawyer claims suburban Atlanta taking too much of Coosa s water.