WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court has appointed Maine attorney Ralph Lancaster Special Master in the dispute between Georgia and Florida over water in Lake Lanier and elsewhere in Georgia.<br />
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Lancaster is an attorney with Pearce Atwood LLP, according to the firm's Website.<br />
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It notes that a Special Master is someone who is given authority to, "fix the time and conditions for the filing of additional pleadings, to direct subsequent proceedings, to summon witnesses, to issue subpoenas, and to take such evidence as may be introduced and such as he may deem it necessary to call for."<br />
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The firm's Website says this is Lancaster's fourth Special Master appointment by the Supreme Court, the first person named by the high court to serve in this role four times.<br />
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Florida claims that Georgia has unfairly withheld water from Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River and that the Apalachicola Bay has suffered, specifically causing damage to Florida's oyster industry.<br />
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The dispute has been going on for decades.<br />
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