Post-Trial Mediation Ordered For Water Wars

Attorneys for Florida and Georgia tried the decades-long Water Wars case between them before a U.S. Supreme Court assigned Special Master late last year. A ruling was expected following the filing of post-trial briefs of each state. Florida seeks to limit Georgia’s water consumption from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin, including Lake Lanier, to 1992 levels and to get reparations for alleged economic and environmental harm to Apalachicola's oyster fisheries from drought. The dispute focuses on the river basin which drains almost 20,000 square miles in western Georgia, eastern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. The Chattahoochee and Flint rivers meet at the Georgia-Florida border to form the Apalachicola, which flows into the bay and the Gulf of Mexico beyond. Maine resident and Special Master, Ralph I. Lancaster, Jr., previously advised the states to settle out of court rather than live with a costly decision he has stressed neither will like. The states already mediated the case with a mediator whose name was strangely kept secret by an order. Except to hear progress reports, Master Lancaster wanted no part of the mediation process, but now has ordered the parties back to a post-trial mediation this month. Florida still seeks a cap on consumption that would alleviate past damage allegedly caused by Georgia. The Special master has encouraged the sides meet in a good faith effort to reach a framework for settlement of this equitable apportionment proceeding. He cites a precedent for controversies between states, quoting a 1942 case for the proposition that "The Supreme Court has 'often expressed' its 'preference' that, where possible, states settle their controversies by ‘mutual accommodation and agreement.’” Counsel for the states are to submit a confidential memorandum to him by January 26, 2017,“setting forth a summary of the parties’ settlement efforts.” See article here-- http://bit.ly/2iVDc3K and docket with case management order here-- http://bit.ly/2aMQVJH