A federal appeals court has thrown out a water rights agreement between the state of Georgia and the Army Corps of Engineers. The agreement would have granted Georgia approximately one-quarter of Lake Lanier's capacity over the coming decades for drinking water.

The court decision is a major victory for Alabama and Florida; these states have challenged the Georgia/Army Corps pact, established in 2003, arguing that water withdrawals would dry up river flows into their states. The river flows, state leaders said, support smaller communities, power plants, commercial fisheries and industrial users such as paper mills.

A district court initially ruled in Georgia's favor, but the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., overturned that decision, ruling that the agreement required major reservoir operational changes and thus congressional approval.

"It is the most consequential legal ruling in the 18-year history of the water war," said Alabama Gov. Bob Riley. The city of Atlanta must cease taking more water from federal reservoirs in the Coosa and Chattahoochee river basins, according to Riley.

Georgia, Alabama and Florida reached a tentative agreement at a water summit in Tallahassee, Fla., in November 2007, but Florida pulled out of the agreement a few weeks later.

Georgia currently uses about 10 to 15 percent of Lake Lanier's capacity. The lake, a federal reservoir just outside Atlanta, was initially built as a hydropower source.

Source: WGCL TV Atlanta