Florida v. Georgia

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Florida’s original jurisdiction case seeking an equitable apportionment of the waters of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin. The Court unanimously found that Florida had not met its heavy burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that Georgia’s overconsumption of the Basin waters caused the collapse of Florida’s oyster fisheries and harm to Florida’s river ecosystem. The Court pointed to documents and witnesses presented by Florida that supported Georgia’s contention that Florida’s mismanagement of the fishery caused its collapse; the Court also cited evidence that “the unprecedented series of multiyear droughts, as well as changes in seasonal rainfall patterns, may have played a significant role” in the conditions that led to the fishery’s collapse.

On February 22, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in an original jurisdiction case filed by Florida against Georgia in which Florida seeks a decree apportioning the waters of the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, and Flint River Basins to address harms Florida allegedly suffered—including damage to oyster fisheries—due to decreased flows in the Apalachicola River that Florida contends is caused by Georgia’s use of water. Georgia argues that Florida did not prove that Georgia’s water use caused the harm to the fisheries and that changing climatic conditions and Florida’s mismanagement of the fisheries played “a far greater role.”