Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 12/3/19

Competition for limited water resources is a growing problem in the Southeast, where farmers are using more water for their operations. Combined with urban growth and climate change, the trend is taxing Southern water supplies and pitting states against each other in legal disputes, The Wall Street Journal writes.

Water stress is traditionally more common in the West, where states like California and Arizona recently approved a water-sharing deal to stave off a catastrophic depletion of the Colorado River, which supplies water to 40 million people and huge swaths of agriculture. But the problem is increasingly spreading east.

Water wars: The Supreme Court last month appointed a "special master" in New Mexico to hear arguments from Florida and Georgia state attorneys in their longstanding dispute over the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin. Florida blames Georgia farmers (along with Atlanta's rapid expansion) for depleting the water supply upriver and costing some Sunshine State producers their livelihoods.

Irrigated acreage in Georgia has skyrocketed over the last 60 years, according to federal data, helping the state's crop yields to soar. But the heavy usage by Georgia agriculture means much less water flowing to Florida, particularly during droughts.