APALACHICOLA — Alabama and Florida have rejected a proposed plan to keep secret the results of a water study being done by a private group.
The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Stakeholders group had sought to keep the data confidential. The Times of Gainesville, Ga., reported that the group had concerns about information leaks from an ongoing water study conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Georgia Water Resources Institute.
The stakeholder group had voted to keep its data secret until it could be released as part of an overall plan on water usage, the focus of ongoing legal battles between the states.
It wanted Alabama and Florida to enter into a memorandum of understanding agreeing to confidentiality.
Georgia Environmental Protection Division Director Jud Turner said it’s disappointing that Alabama and Florida declined to sign the deal.
Florida officials have said Georgia’s stranglehold on Apalachicola/Flint/Chattahoochee river system has caused serious problems for the health of Apalachicola’s oyster industry, which needs the river system’s supply of freshwater to survive.
The long simmering “water wars” prompted Florida to file a federal lawsuit last year, accusing Georgia of consuming too much water from the a river system. The case was filed directly with the U.S. Supreme Court, escalating the legal dispute after decades of disagreement.