States reject water study secrecy pact

Florida and Alabama have rejected a tri-state agreement that would have bound them to confidentiality concerning the results of a water-sharing study being done by a private group, the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Stakeholders.

John P. Heekin, assistant general counsel to Florida Gov. Rick Scott, sent a Dec. 12 letter, and David B. Byrne Jr., chief legal adviser to Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, a Dec. 16 letter, to the organization rejecting a “memorandum of understanding.”

Heekin said Florida’s denial comes “as we pursue our claims against Georgia in the U.S. Supreme Court and elsewhere.”

Alabama’s letter doesn’t cite why it won’t sign the agreement.

“It is disappointing that Florida and Alabama are categorically declining to sign the MOU,” said Jud Turner, director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.

“We had not completed a full legal review of the (document), but Gov. (Nathan) Deal was open to the concept of a MOU as a way to allow the states to continue to support the ACF Stakeholders work during any litigation. Without the governors signing the MOU, the future of the ACF Stakeholder group is called into question during the litigation between the states.”

The stakeholders group, comprising people interested in water flows through the basin that straddles the three states, has tried to clamp down on information as part of an ongoing water study conducted by Georgia Tech’s Georgia Water Resources Institute.

It had been concerned about information leaks since Florida filed suit Oct. 1 against Georgia in the U.S. Supreme Court, alleging increased water consumption had limited flows into Apalachicola Bay and wrecked the oyster industry.

The group voted in early December in a meeting at Lake Blackshear near Cordele “to adopt (certain) procedures to keep our information confidential until we release it as part of an overall plan,” said James N. McClatchey, chairman of the ACF Stakeholders’ governing board, at the time.

via States reject water study secrecy pact.