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Full-Text Articles in Law
Salmon And The Clean Water Act: An Unfinished Agenda, Michael Blumm, Michael Benjamin Smith
Salmon And The Clean Water Act: An Unfinished Agenda, Michael Blumm, Michael Benjamin Smith
Faculty Articles
Salmon are perhaps the quintessential indicator species for water quality, as they require both sufficient quality and quantity to migrate and spawn. Columbia Basin salmon have been listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for over a quarter-century in large part due to inadequate water flows and poor water quality. A half-century ago, long before the listings, the modern Clean Water Act promised fishable waters. This article explains that this is a promise largely unkept due to implementing agencies’ evasion and disinterest. Recent litigation, however, offers some hope that the statute may yet provide a viable path towards protecting and …
Salmon And The Clean Water Act: An Unfinished Agenda, Michael Blumm, Michael Benjamin Smith
Salmon And The Clean Water Act: An Unfinished Agenda, Michael Blumm, Michael Benjamin Smith
Faculty Articles
Salmon are perhaps the quintessential indicator species for water quality, as they require both sufficient quality and quantity to migrate and spawn. Columbia Basin salmon have been listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for over a quarter-century in large part due to inadequate water flows and poor water quality. A half-century ago, long before the listings, the modern Clean Water Act promised fishable waters. This article explains that this is a promise largely unkept due to implementing agencies’ evasion and disinterest. Recent litigation, however, offers some hope that the statute may yet provide a viable path towards protecting and …
Strategic Dodging Of Esa Listing Determinations, Madeline Kass
Strategic Dodging Of Esa Listing Determinations, Madeline Kass
Faculty Articles
Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing determinations create a focal point for controversy and litigation. A decision to list can elicit the full force of the ESA’s “pit bull” regulatory authorities and, potentially, result in onerous regulatory constraints on land uses. A decision not to list can continue the status quo and, potentially, result in species extinction. Increasingly, efforts to avoid ESA protective measures include anticipatory efforts to avert, divert, or postpone listing determinations. This article describes some of these “dodging” efforts and whether they are likely to benefit at-risk species.
Endangered Species Act Listings And Climate Change: Avoiding The Elephant In The Room, Michael Blumm, Kya Marienfeld
Endangered Species Act Listings And Climate Change: Avoiding The Elephant In The Room, Michael Blumm, Kya Marienfeld
Faculty Articles
The Endangered Species Act (ESA), with its reputation as the nation’s strongest environmental law, might be expected to impose some limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions adversely affecting listed species due to rising global temperatures. Although the federal government recently ended a long period of denial by conceding that some species warrant listing because of climate change, the accompanying listing decisions revealed a federal refusal to apply the ESA to constrain GHG emissions causing the listings. In this article, we explain those decisions — involving the American pika, the polar bear, the wolverine, and the Gunnison sage-grouse — and their …
Panel: Ethics-Based Decision-Making In Societal Water Management, Amy Hardberger
Panel: Ethics-Based Decision-Making In Societal Water Management, Amy Hardberger
Faculty Articles
There is an ethical overlay to water-related decision-making and management, frequently drawing on personal experiences with water and the ubiquitous need for water. The modern South African Bill of Rights, ensuring its people’s access to water; the movement towards recognizing water as a basic human right; and even occurrences in Texas, including the passage of “environmental flows legislation” and the efforts to preserve and protect the Edwards Aquifer, reflect the presence of ethics in decision-making with respect to water management. Ethics are a part of water management decision-making.