David Hall, University of Georgia Extension Water Educator, shares. When I talk to young kids about the importance of water, I ask, “how would your lives change if you woke up tomorrow and had no access to water?” Their expression is always a puzzled one.
Looking back over this summer, I think to myself, “how could agriculture survive without supplemental irrigation or with water usage caps?” It’s a serious question with huge ramifications hanging in the balance this winter. Florida claims excessive use of upstream water has led to the downfall of the oyster industry in the Apalachicola Bay. Georgia claims its conservation measures of water through Ag and municipal purposes prove that Georgia is and will continue to be a good steward of water. The thought of water caps would be devastating to Southwest Georgia farmers.
According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, the arguments for water rights between Georgia and Florida has cost over 50 million in taxpayer dollars. Millions of document pages, countless depositions, and several decades later we are now entering another crossroad coming up on December 16th of this year.
Georgia faired extremely well with a ruling back in January of 2018 but the Supreme Court decided by a small margin that the case be “revisited” and not dismissed. All eyes will be on the court proceedings scheduled to take place in an Albuquerque federal courtroom.
For more information regarding the “Water Wars”, click here.