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Environmental Law

Selected Works

2012

Sandi Zellmer

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

The Shallows Where Federal Reserved Water Rights Founder: State Court Derogation Of The Winters Doctrine, Sandi Zellmer, Justin Huber Aug 2012

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 Dec 2011

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 …