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Minn. judge may decide water war

By Stacy Shelton
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/22/07

The tristate water war that's been fought in four different courts for the past 17 years could be decided in one place, Florida, with one judge, from Minnesota.

A federal panel of judges decided this week to bundle the four lawsuits filed by Georgia, Alabama, Florida and federal hydropower customers into one showdown. The judge chosen for the case is U.S. District Judge Paul A. Magnuson, a Reagan appointee.

Magnuson handled a similar case several years ago involving multiple states in a fight over rights to the Missouri River.

Georgia is in a fight over the Chattahoochee River. Alabama and Florida have tried to stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from taking more water to supply metro Atlanta, while Georgia has tried to stop the corps from sending too much water downstream to Alabama and Florida.

Georgia had asked the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate the cases.

The states are in court-ordered mediation, with a deadline of March 30. Those talks have been extended three times.

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