Good news...Water Wars

[ferris1248]

Report could give Fla. win in water war

Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Carla Caldwell, Morning Call Editor
Date: Thursday, June 2, 2011, 5:31am EDT

A new report scheduled for release Aug. 1 says Florida may need more water than first thought to prevent deaths of an endangered mussel in Florida’s Apalachicola River, the Miami Herald is reporting. The revision could give Florida a win in the long-running water dispute between Georgia, Florida and Alabama. The three states have fought for years over water, with both Florida and Alabama calling Georgia a water hog that uses so much of the natural resource too little is left for people and wildlife in the neighboring states.

According to the Miami newspaper, a new study has U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service researchers revisiting a 2008 report that found keeping the river flowing at a minimum of 5,000 cubic feet per second would not threaten the existence of the endangered fat threeridge mussel. Scientists are concerned the mussel has moved higher on the riverbank and could need more water to survive than was the case during the drought-stricken period when the study was first completed. More water for Florida could mean less water Atlanta is allowed to drain from Lake Lanier to supply city residents.

The new study says that as many as 1,200 endangered mussels were exposed to air in September when river levels dropped, Donald Imm, a project leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Panama City, Fla. told the Miami Herald. He said the mussels are an indication of general conditions for other wildlife in the waterway.

Florida has asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to overturn a lower court judge who refused last year to order the release of more water from Georgia reservoirs into the Apalachicola River to protect the gulf sturgeon, the fat threeridge mussel and the purple bankclimber mussel. The appellate court delayed a ruling until Imm's team could complete its work, the paper reports.

An attorney for Florida, Parker Thompson, told the Miami Herald the new information is likely to affect the case.

Georgia attorney Todd Silliman told the Miami paper he could not comment until federal scientists file their report.

The U.S. District Court has ruled that Georgia, beginning in 2012, will be limited as far as how much water it can drain from Lake Lanier on the Chattahoochee River, the primary water source for roughly 3 million people – unless the state can strike a deal with Florida and Alabama.

Georgia appealed the ruling saying officials need time to negotiate with Alabama and Florida.

[RalphKramden2011]

Appropriate bathroom sign in Georgia:

PLEASE FLUSH! FLORIDA NEEDS THE WATER!
THANK YOU!

[wishfishin]

Not surprising to see that mussels win over humans.

[ferris1248]

While I'm not a big fan of the 3 ridged, fat mussel, if it can get Florida more water I'm in favor.

[FUTCHCAIRO]

DANG, SOME OF THESE POST ARE SO LONG AND BORING I FALL TO SLEEP AND TAKE A 2 HR. NAP BEFORE I WAKE UP. MESSIN UP MY SLEEP SCHEDULE.
PA
SEMPER FI

[ferris1248]

We be a long winded bunch PA!!

[MudDucker]

Water victory ... really. (eyes rolling)

[fishinfool]

Just run a big pipe to the Mississippi River. The folks who get flooded every year could use the relief.
FF

[DukesFin]

If it is anything other than the natural flow, somebody's going to "lose" one way or another. I've always said, if the lake is going to stay in place, let the water release mimick the natural flow of water dependent on rainfall/runoff and any springs (assuming there are any)... Sometimes that would be a raging rapid, sometimes a trickle. I don't claim to know any more than the average rock about the ecology, watershed or anything else about it, so that is probably why I fall back to the "natural flow" argument!

It seems to me that if the "bank climber mussel" would quit climbing the bank, he'd stay out of the air. Duh! Stupid mussel!

Lawyers are WINNING from every angle on this.

[wishfishin]

Dukes' solution is the most logical, which is why it will not be implemented.

[ferris1248]

It won't be implemented because it would play havoc with hydroelectric power generation. Also the river is about 450 miles long. It can be in a drought at one end and flooded at the other.

He is right about the lawyers.