Judge Stanley Marcus, Judge Richard Mills and Judge R. Lanier Anderson III of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed the 2009 order by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson on March 9th. Seth P. Waxman, Partner at Wilmer Hale, argued on behalf of Georgia and other local interests that if Lake Lanier is not reauthorized for water supply then it could have a devastating effect on economic development in Georgia. The judges seemed poised to send the case to the Army Corps of Engineers which would be beneficial to Georgia; all parties are hopeful that a decision will be made in 30-90 days.
Judge Paul Magnuson had previously set a 2012 deadline for Georgia, Alabama and Florida to work out how water should be withdrawn and allocated from Lake Lanier among the three states. If a compromise is not reached then Georgia could only withdraw the same amount of water as it did in the mid-1970s when the population was a third of the size it is now. Read the related article from the AJC