In 2013, following its third regional drought in just over a decade, Florida filed suit in the Supreme Court, seeking equitable apportionment of water from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee Flint River Basin. Florida claimed that Georgia’s alleged overconsumption from the Basin severely harmed Florida’s oyster fisheries and river wildlife. The Court denied reapportionment because Florida had failed to produce “clear and convincing evidence” showing that Georgia’s alleged overconsumption caused the collapse of the oyster fisheries and harm to wildlife. However, the modern-day impacts of climate change on water availability suggest that the Court in Florida v. Georgia should have reevaluated the forty-year-old water reapportionment standards. The Court should have clarified ambiguous terms in the equitable reapportionment standards or, alternatively, gotten rid of the standards altogether.
Murky Apalachicola Basin Waters Call for Clearer Equitable Apportionment Standards
