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Keep Your Money: Let The West Pay For Its Own Water Projects, Denise D. Fort
Keep Your Money: Let The West Pay For Its Own Water Projects, Denise D. Fort
Faculty Scholarship
The question posed here is what role the federal government should play in responding to the western water crisis, in light of the changes in the social and political landscape that have occurred in the last decade. My thesis is that solutions to water needs that are funded locally are more likely to be sustainable than those produced through national appropriations. My thinking is affected by the work I did on a Presidential commission that recommended sustainability be the cornerstone of western water policy.
Deflating The Deference Myth: National Interests Vs. State Authority Under Federal Laws Affecting Water Use, Reed D. Benson
Deflating The Deference Myth: National Interests Vs. State Authority Under Federal Laws Affecting Water Use, Reed D. Benson
Faculty Scholarship
This Article seeks to separate the myth from the reality of federal deference to state water allocation authority. Section I briefly addresses background principles of state water law and federal constitutional law, and Section II traces the early history of deference prior to 1910. Section III analyzes three federal statutory schemes and Supreme Court cases applying them, suggests that each represents a different level of federal deference, and distills a few principles for analyzing deference under federal statutes. Section IV addresses deference issues arising in the context of the CWA and the ESA, applying the principles identified in the previous …
Adequate Progress, Or Rivers Left Behind? Developments In Colorado And Wyoming Instream Flow Laws Since 2000, Reed D. Benson
Adequate Progress, Or Rivers Left Behind? Developments In Colorado And Wyoming Instream Flow Laws Since 2000, Reed D. Benson
Faculty Scholarship
Colorado and Wyoming have much in common in regard to water supply and water use, and both states have followed the western states' traditional approach in their instream flow laws. This traditional approach, however, has serious practical shortcomings in restoring and protecting instream flows. This Article asks whether Colorado and Wyoming have made “adequate progress” since 2000 in addressing these shortcomings in their instream flow laws. For one of these states, the answer is clear Wyoming has made no progress on its instream flow laws in recent years. Colorado, by contrast, has clearly made progress in strengthening its laws-especially as …
A Few Ironies Of Western Water Law, Reed D. Benson
A Few Ironies Of Western Water Law, Reed D. Benson
Faculty Scholarship
We have a truly outstanding panel of speakers this morning to discuss issues and history relating to water resources in the American West. Water, of course, has always been scarce out here. Some nineteenth century maps of the United States had the words "Great American Desert" written broadly across the West, and that characterization reflected how many people viewed the West in that era. The story goes that President Grant sent a cabinet member to the West with orders to report back on "what it is they need out there." The secretary dutifully wrote back saying, "All this place needs …