By BRUCE RITCHIE
“Water links us to our neighbor in a way more profound and complex than any other.” — John Thorson
If we are all connected by water, is anyone actually reporting and writing stories to help define that connection?
I’m giving it a shot for a shared river system in Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
I have covered the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint rivers for more than 25 years as just one of many issues involving environmental policy and politics at the Florida Capitol.
But now I’ve left the grind of daily journalism in an effort to solely focus on covering the river system for my ACF River News on Substack.
My goal has been to write a book that examines the competing needs for water throughout the drainage area. Covering it as a reporter on a weekly basis is the best way I know to dive back into the issue.
You may remember the river system only because of a long-running legal dispute among the three states.
Alabama and Florida originally sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1991 over the allocation of water from the Chattahoochee River. Georgia sided with the Corps in defense of its water supply.
The states put the litigation on hold to work out their differences until 2005, when they declared an impasse.
Florida sued again in 2013 over Georgia’s water use. But the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out that direct action, saying Florida had not adequately documented its arguments that Georgia was causing an oyster die-off in Apalachicola Bay.
The original federal lawsuit over water allocation led the Corps of Engineers to develop a new water-control manual that allocated water for the Atlanta area.
Alabama sued and eventually settled its case to provide water flow down the river. Florida groups still are appealing a federal judge’s decision siding against their case.
There is now no litigation remaining among the states.
But efforts to work cooperatively have always continued in the background, even during the years of litigation. A group called the ACF Stakeholders has been meeting for nearly two decades to keep discussions going.
Albany State University in Georgia holds its ACF Waters Conference every two years. It brings together diverse interests to hear about federal management of the river system, water conservation efforts and scientific research to protect fish and wildlife.
Backed by the Pew Charitable Trusts, a group of scientists is now trying to define the needs of threatened and endangered sturgeon and mussels living in the Apalachicola River, along with the abundant marine life in the Apalachicola Bay estuary.
My friend Cynthia Barnett wrote in her book “Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.” that water “is intensely personal for most people.”
And it goes both ways. If we want them to understand how personal it is for us, then we also have to understand what it means to them. I hope my journalism will help increase that understanding.
This is part of a semi-regular series of articles that will be featured in the Florida Specifier by Bruce Ritchie, a long-time Florida environmental reporter. Ritchie’s work can be found on his Substack at https://bruceritchie.substack.com/
