LeakBird

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday declined to hear Georgia’s appeal of a lower court ruling in the long-running tri-state water wars.

The high court denied a request to review a decision handed down nearly a year ago by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington invalidating a 2003 agreement to let metro Atlanta water utilities increase withdrawals from Lake Lanier from about 13 percent of the lake’s capacity to about 22 percent.

The agreement between Georgia and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was challenged by Florida and Alabama, which lie downstream of Lanier in the Chattahoochee River system.

In a prepared statement, Gov. Charlie Crist applauded the decision.

“This action will allow Florida to continue our efforts to help protect the adequate flow of freshwater in the Apalachicola River,” Crist said. “After nearly 20 years of legal discussions, today’s decision should provide the framework needed for resolution of this matter.

In opposing Georgia’s efforts to take more water out of Lake Lanier to meet rapidly growing customer demand in metro Atlanta, Florida and Alabama argued that the reservoir was built in the 1950s primarily to provide hydropower and that water supply was not its authorized purpose.