Fla. to sue Army Corps of Engineers in water dispute

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Florida officials have notified the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that they plan to sue the federal agency for violating the Endangered Species Act.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection sent a seven-page letter dated Thursday outlining its concerns that the Corps' management of reservoirs in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin jeopardizes wildlife in those areas.

The suit cites concerns by biologists and environmentalists about the impact on the Gulf sturgeon fish, and three mussels: the fat threeridge mussel, the purple bankclimber and the Chipola slabshell.

Alabama, Florida and Georgia have been in a long battle about reducing flows as part of the Corps' drought management plans to keep more water upstream in Georgia. That's largely to meet the enormous needs in the metropolitan Atlanta area.