Apalachicola Bay and Riverkeeper, Inc.

Apalachicola Riverkeeper is Florida's representative in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Stakeholders (ACFS) www.acfstakeholders.org . This program represents multiple numerous and diverse entities within Florida, Georgia and Alabama who all have a vested interest in the outcome of the entrenched and persistent ""water wars"" between these three States. The purpose for Riverkeeper helping to establish this stakeholder group was to create a different approach to developing equitable water allocation methodologies, one that does NOT involve time-wasting and unsuccessful (for Florida) litigation. Apalachicola Riverkeeper helped to orchestrate a consensus among the stakeholder entities to conduct the first-ever (neutral) instream flow assessment and agreement to abide by the results. The data from this assessment is extremely important as it lays the groundwork for the Apalachicola Riverkeeper to continue to facilitate a sustainable water management plan that will document an equitable allocation of water for all three states in the future - a problem that has compounded and confounded leaders in all three states for more than 20 years. This program is highly dynamic and requires intense Lawmaker education & advocacy and public education/input and legislative policy development, all requiring regular travel to the States of Georgia and Alabama. This year, Apalachicola Riverkeeper and its partner organization (Riparian County Stakeholder Coalition - RCSC) were key players in getting public dollars to find the answers to the problems in the River.