BRADENTON, Fla. — Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal created a special agency and brought in an outside attorney to prepare for Georgia's defense of a lawsuit over water rights filed by Florida.
Because of what he said is "complex litigation," Deal on Thursday established the office for interagency coordination and management of water resources, and appointed Judson Turner as its head to handle the suit before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Turner, the state's Environmental Protection Division director, will remain in that position while handling duties of the interagency coordination office, Deal said.
The governor also appointed John Allen, an environmental litigation attorney who is of counsel at Kazmarek, Mowery, Cloud & Laseter LLP, to serve as deputy for the new interagency office. He also works as a special assistant attorney general on the case for Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens.
Allen has represented Georgia in past litigation, interstate negotiations, and regulatory matters related to the federal reservoirs in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin, and others at the heart of the current dispute and previous legal challenges between Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, which is not a part to the case before the Supreme Court.
"The U.S. Supreme Court case filed by Florida against Georgia over the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Basin has placed significant new demands on state agencies involved in these matters," Deal said. "Add to this the renewed litigation against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over additional water supply from Lake Allatoona, and the workload requires the state to take additional steps to assure we have the right staff in place."
In early November, Georgia and two of its agencies filed lawsuits against the Corps for failing to develop the manuals that govern water supply policy issues.
Deal also appointed several other state agency officials to work with the office for interagency coordination and management for water resources.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott filed a lawsuit in late 2013 seeking an injunction from the Supreme Court to stop what Scott said is Georgia's "unchecked and growing consumption of water that continues to harm the families of Northwest Florida."
The court formally agreed to hear the suit on Nov. 3.
Scott's suit asks the high court to equitably apportion the interstate waters of the ACF Basin, which provides fresh water for drinking and marine resources to both states.
Florida's suit also asks the court to cap Georgia's withdrawals at levels that existed on Jan. 3, 1992, a standard that might be difficult given the growth of Atlanta and other communities in the metro area.
According to recent court documents, the case could run through mid-2016 because of its complex nature involving issues never litigated by the states before.
Ralph Lancaster, a civil and criminal lawyer who is of counsel at Pierce Atwood LLP in Maine, was recently appointed as the special master to manage the case before the Supreme Court. He established a schedule for discovery to take place between Feb. 9 and April 13, and depositions to occur between April 20 and Sept. 18.
However, Florida and Georgia filed a joint motion on Wednesday stating that they need more time because, while there has been previous litigation involving the ACF basin, those legal challenges never involved the issue of equitable appointment.
The two states have proposed a new case schedule that will be discussed with Lancaster during a conference call on Monday.
