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= ACF River Basin =

Water wars[edit]
These states and Alabama have been involved in a water-use dispute for two decades, known as the Tri-state water dispute. Georgia has also lobbied the United States Congress to end navigation on the Appalachicola and lower Chattahoochee, to conserve more water during droughts. Keeping the two rivers at a navigable depth during these times requires large releases from dams upstream, sending potential drinking water downstream for shipping, and often dropping lakes to levels dangerous to boaters.

Conservation[edit]
Numerous endangered and imperiled species occur in the basin, including many endemic mussels. One ecological conservation and economic concerns as a result of water use in the ACF River Basin include protecting the populations of oysters and the harvesting in Apalachicola Bay. Oysters considered to be ecosystem engineers as they perform important ecosystem services such as, but not limited to, controlling algal blooms, nutrient cycling, shoreline stabilization, water filtration, and the creation of refugia from predation and feeding habitat for juvenile and adult mobile aquatic species. Additionally, Oysters are economically important as 90% of Florida's oyster supply as well as 10% of the world's supply comes from Apalachicola Bay. It is estimated that these services that oyster reefs provide are valued economically between $5500 and $99,000 per hectare per year, and that reefs recover their median restoration costs as quick as 2–14 years.

Conflict arises when water flow into Apalachicola Bay is reduced as a result of water withdrawal upstream. Water withdrawn from the river basin, both groundwater and surface water, is used for a wide variety of applications, such as agriculture, public water supply, private water supply, nuclear powerplant cooling, mining and more, however about 70% of water withdrawn from the basin in 2010 went towards agriculture and public water suppliers. In 2010, with the population residing on the ACF River Basin being 3.835 million in 2010, total water use was 1,593 Mgal/d. About 89 percent of the groundwater and 83 percent of the surface-water withdrawals were from Georgia. With this amount of water being withdrawn from the river basin, the amount of freshwater that makes it down the river into Apalachicola estuaries and oyster reefs is reduced. This is important because freshwater influx is directly related to oyster growth rates, as the water from upstream carries important nutrients for the oysters Additionally, it offsets the salinity levels which was found to be the most important physical factor in determining oyster survivability and mortality in Apalachicola Bay.