ATLANTA - Georgia has filed an answer to the latest court filing by Florida in the long-running battle over water in Lake Lanier and other Georgia waterways.<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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In its response, Georgia denies Florida's contention that is is entitled to an "equitable apportionment" of water from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin and also denies many of the other points made by Florida in its filing.<br />
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Georgia also notes that both the Chattahoochee and Flints rivers both have their origins in Georgia.<br />
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Last February, Georgia asked the Supreme Court to stay out of the dispute and reject Florida's request for it to intervene in deciding how the two states share water that flows across the state line where the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers merge to form the Apalachicola River. (See first link below.) But in November the court agreed to hear the case and in December appointed a Special Master for the case. (See second and third links below.)<br />
