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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Shallows Where Federal Reserved Water Rights Founder: State Court Derogation Of The Winters Doctrine, Sandi Zellmer, Justin Huber
The Shallows Where Federal Reserved Water Rights Founder: State Court Derogation Of The Winters Doctrine, Sandi Zellmer, Justin Huber
Sandi Zellmer
The doctrine of implied federally reserved water rights, as established by Winters v. U.S., 207 U.S. 564 (1908), is important to the realization of federal land management goals. Recently, the doctrine’s ability to protect those goals when federal land is set aside for non-Indian purposes has been greatly limited by several poorly reasoned and result-oriented state court decisions. The primary factors that have led to these erosions of the Winters doctrine’s utility are: (1) the McCarran Amendment, 43 U.S.C. § 666, which allows states to force the U.S. to assert its federally reserved water rights claims in state court general …
Using The Public Natural Resource Management Laws To Improve Water Pollution Anti-Degradation Policies, Sandi Zellmer, Robert Glicksman
Using The Public Natural Resource Management Laws To Improve Water Pollution Anti-Degradation Policies, Sandi Zellmer, Robert Glicksman
Sandi Zellmer
The Clean Water Act’s principal goal is to “restore and maintain” the integrity of the nation’s surface water bodies. The Act’s adoption was spurred largely by the perception that unchecked pollution had caused the degradation of those waters, making them unsuitable for uses such as fishing and swimming. At the time Congress passed the statute, however, some lakes, rivers, and streams had water quality that was better than what was needed to support these uses. An important question was whether the statute would limit discharges with the potential to impair these high quality waters. EPA’s anti-degradation policy sought to ensure …
Mississippi River Stories: Lessons From A Century Of Floods And Hurricanes, Sandra Zellmer, Christine Klein
Mississippi River Stories: Lessons From A Century Of Floods And Hurricanes, Sandra Zellmer, Christine Klein
Sandi Zellmer
n the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the nation pondered how a relatively weak Category 3 storm could have destroyed an entire region. Few appreciated the extent to which a flawed federal water development policy transformed this apparently natural disaster into a “manmade” disaster; fewer still appreciated how the disaster was the predictable, and indeed predicted, sequel to almost a century of similar disasters. This article focuses upon three such stories: the Great Flood of 1927, the Midwest Flood of 1993, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005. Taken together, the stories reveal important lessons, including the inadequacy of engineered flood …
Adaptation, Evolution And Symbiosis In Water Law, Sandi Zellmer
Adaptation, Evolution And Symbiosis In Water Law, Sandi Zellmer
Sandi Zellmer
: This article traces the evolution of the laws governing the use of water for consumption, waste disposal, public purposes and environmental protection. It provides a unique integration of water resources law and environmental law, two fields that are otherwise highly fragmented in the United States. Both the historic tensions and the emerging collaborations among federal, state, tribal and private interests in managing water resources are assessed in an effort to illuminate future pathways for conservation and the restoration of degraded waterways. The article begins with colonial America and proceeds through five significant eras in U.S. history: the Gilded Age …