THOMAS, J., dissenting
any good. All would still suffer the same harms during the summers of drought years when flows remain fixed at 5,000 cubic feet per second because of the Corps’ operations.
If we contrast the de minimus benefits that Florida might receive from small amounts of additional waterduring nondroughts with the massive harms that Georgia would suffer if this Court cut its water use in half duringdroughts, it is clear who should prevail in this case. Florida’s expert estimated that a cap on Georgia would have an“[i]ncremental [f]iscal [c]ost” of $35.2 million per year.Sunding 44. This figure included only additional costs that would require “the [Georgia] legislature . . . to appropriate money.” 11 Trial Tr. 2791. The real cost of such a cap,which includes nongovernmental costs like welfare losses, would range anywhere from $191 million, id., at 2787; Stavins 31, to more than $2 billion per year, id., at 2. And the cap would trigger resulting losses in Georgia’s gross regional product and employment, totaling around $322million and 4,173 jobs annually. Id., at 40. Regardless ofthe measure used, this harm dwarfs the value of Florida’s entire fishing industry in Apalachicola Bay, which pro- duces annual revenues of $11.7 million. Id., at 16. And it greatly outweighs the value of the additional oysters that a cap on Georgia’s use might produce—i.e., no more than a few hundred thousand dollars. Id., at 52. Imposing anenormously high cost on one State so that another State can achieve a hollow victory is “not the high equity that moves the conscience of the court in giving judgment between states.” Washington, 297 U. S., at 523.
* * * In the final analysis, Florida has not shown that it will appreciably benefit from a cap on Georgia’s water use.Absent such a showing, the balance of harms cannot tip in Florida’s favor. Accordingly, I would have overruled Flor
Of course, Justice Thomas is from Georgia, he has a Bulldog in this fight.
This is really about California taking water from Oregon to meet it’s needs. This was a test case. Not that Florida doesn’t have a problem in sucking all the water out of its own aquifers and collapsing itself, but the hugh and series issue is southern California.