Georgia loses a water battle

A federal appeals court threw out an agreement that Georgia reached with the Army Corps of Engineers for water rights to a major federal reservoir outside Atlanta, handing Alabama and Florida a victory in the states’ long-standing water wars.

The ruling comes amid tense negotiations among the states’ governors over water sharing during a record drought. The 2003 agreement with the corps would give Georgia about a quarter of Lake Lanier’s capacity over the coming decades, primarily to serve Atlanta.

Alabama and Florida challenged the pact, arguing that Georgia doesn’t have a legal right to the federal reservoir, which was initially built for hydropower.