The U.S. Supreme Court Monday refused to hear appeals by Florida and Alabama in their 20-year-old water war with Georgia.

Without comment, the justices declined to review an appeals court decision denying the two states’ claim that water supply was not an authorized purpose for Lake Lanier when the federally managed reservoir was built in the 1950s.

By rejecting the appeal, the Supreme Court made clear that Atlanta-area residents and businesses can continue to rely on the lake as the region’s primary source of drinking water, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens said.

“It is my hope that we can finally put this decades-long legal dispute to rest and work together with our sister states ­– in meeting rooms, not courtrooms ­­– to develop a fair and equitable water sharing plan,” Olens said in a prepared statement.

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