Law Commons^™

The Damming Of Nature: How China Is Expanding Its Dam Infrastructure And Potential Negative Downstream Effects On Fisheries Of The Yaluzangbu-Brahmaputra River, Stephanie M. Smith

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

In light of the critical need to shift from fossil fuels as the primary source of energy, China continues to plan expansive hydropower generation projects on the Yaluzangbu-Brahmaputra River, one of the few remaining clean and biologically diverse river basin ecosystems in China. In March 2011, the Chinese National People’s Congress approved the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (Plan) for national development with specific themes and targets within the economic and social arenas. The Plan has a specific focus on “higher quality growth,” which is defined in the Plan as addressing the issues of renewable energy and sustainability. Specifically, the Plan addresses …

Reducing Overdraft And Respecting Water Rights Under California's 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: A View From The Kern County Farming Sector, Ashley Mettler

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

California groundwater is an invaluable drought reserve for agricultural farmers. With historically dry conditions affecting the annual water supply, precious groundwater has become one of the last water resources available to growers in the Central Valley. The devastating drought effects have necessitated the use of groundwater to help offset the surface water deprivation, and the increase in groundwater usage has become a source of growing conflict among water users and environmentalists across the state.

In 2014, the California Legislature introduced the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), opening the door to a new era of water management and new challenges for …

Conflicting Theories At Play: Chemical Disclosure And Trade Secrets In The New Federal Fracking Regulation, Melanie Mccormick

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

Currently, there is no federal law regulating fracking. Instead, fracking is only regulated under state law. Public disclosure requirements vary widely from state-to-state. Some states have no disclosure requirements at all. Of the states that do, most have included trade secret exception provisions allowing oil and gas companies to refuse to disclose the chemicals they use in fracking. More importantly, very few state laws that have trade secret exceptions also require that the company provide any substantiation that the trade secret is legitimate. Without some kind of uniform factual substantiation requirement, what is to keep oil and gas companies from …

Climate Resilience Metrics – Putting Them To Work In California, Alexandra R. Leumer

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

Building on climate adaptation goals defined in climate policy, this paper identifies examples of performance-based metrics to measure and track the effectiveness of climate risk reduction and resilience actions in California in order to inform developing state policy and guidance on resilience metrics. After a brief review of California’s climate goals, a set of guiding principles are proposed for metric development. An overview of the current discourse on resiliency metrics follows and the paper concludes with a set of recommendations for the state as it moves forward in the development of metrics.

Ten Regulatory And Cultural Principles That Improve California's Drought Planning, Chris Shutes

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

Forty-one of the past hundred years in California have been part of multi-year drought sequences. The 2012–2015 drought was one of the worst of the last hundred years, and there are increasing concerns that climate change will increase the frequency of drought in California. This article deals with ten regulatory and cultural principles developed in the last decade that are becoming embedded in drought planning in California.

Sweating The Small Stuff: Managing Fisheries And Fostering Marine Ecosystem Resilience In The Face Of Climate Change, Andrea Arnold Treece

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

Since 2013, thousands of emaciated California sea lion pups have washed ashore along the United States West Coast (“U.S. West Coast” or “West Coast”), leading concerned scientists and members of the public to wonder what’s happening off our shores. In March 2016, researchers concluded that California sea lions have been suffering from mass malnutrition because their main food sources, sardine and anchovy, are scarce. Why are these fish so scarce? Scientists say that the combination of unusually warm ocean conditions and fishing for sardine and anchovy has depleted the food supply for these animals. And sea lions are simply the …

In This Edition, Paul Stanton Kibel, Phoebe Moshfegh

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

Over the past two decades, considerable attention has been given to the subject of climate mitigation, of the development of laws and policies to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to global warming. More recently, in addition to climate mitigation, attention has turned to the question of climate adaptation, of the development of law and policies that respond to the environmental consequences of climate change. In this Pacific Region Edition of the Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal, titled Climate Resiliency – California Prepares for an Altered Environment, we develop this theme of climate adaptation. Our …

Table Of Contents

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

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Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

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The Golden Rule* Of Water Management, Russell M. Mcglothlin, Jena Shoaf Acos

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

California follows a “Golden Rule” of water management, which requires management of the state’s water for maximum beneficial use. This principle is codified at Article X, Section 2 of California’s Constitution. However, the Golden Rule has a qualifier—an asterisk—which requires that water management “preserve water right priorities to the extent those priorities do not lead to unreasonable use.” We call this qualifier the Mojave Rule, named after the California Supreme Court’s decision in City of Barstow v. Mojave Water Agency. The Golden Rule* is the foundation of water management in California and the Mojave Rule is the key qualifier. …

Not All Water Stored Underground Is Groundwater: Aquifer Privatization And California's 2014 Groundwater Sustainable Management Act, Adam Keats, Chelsea Tu

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 (“Act”) has been heralded as a “once-in-a-century achievement.” While some have criticized the Act’s relatively modest regulatory goals, long compliance deadlines, and weak enforcement powers, others have hailed the mere accomplishment of the state passing some form of groundwater legislation and celebrated the Act’s stated goals of protecting existing water rights and local control of groundwater supplies. Some groundwater basins may prove to be well-suited for the regulatory scheme imposed by the Act, but equitable regulation of other groundwater basins may be challenged by current and future efforts to privatize these groundwater resources. …

A Vineyardist's View On Reasonable Use And Frost Protection Diversions Under California Water Law, Nicholas Jacobs

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

This Article will discuss the Light case from the perspective of my firm’s vineyardist clients—including our understanding of the Reasonable Use Doctrine and its application to the frost protection regulation.

The underlying premise of the frost protection regulation is the theory that reductions in streamflow caused by frost protection diversions cause or contribute to stranding of juvenile salmonids in the exposed gravel banks of the rivers and streams in the Russian River watershed. One of the key issues in Light was whether good science supports this theory. From the perspective of my vineyardist clients, the State Board relied on very …

Reasonable Use On The Russian River: A Brief History Of The Frost Protection Rule, Brian J. Johnson

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

The Russian River Frost Protection Regulation (“Frost Protection Rule”) states that “any diversion of water from the Russian River stream system, including the pumping of hydraulically connected groundwater, for purposes of frost protection” must be diverted in accordance with an approved “water demand management program” (WDMP), or the diversion “is an unreasonable method of diversion and use and a violation of Water Code section 100.” The California State Water Resources Control Board (“State Water Board”) adopted the Frost Protection Rule on September 20, 2011.

Litigation over the rule culminated in the decision in Light et al. v. State Water Res. …

Desperate Times Call For Sensible Measures: The Making Of The California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Tina Cannon Leahy

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

The story of how California passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA)—popularly pronounced as “Sigma”—is an example of how what occurs “overnight” can be a century in the making.

California is frequently the United States’ leader in sustainability and progressive regulation. Sections of the State’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act were models for the modern federal Clean Water Act. The federal Clean Air Act provided California a preemption waiver that not only allowed it to set its own automobile emissions standards but empowered other states to choose between the stricter California standard and the federal standard. With a market share …

In This Edition, Phoebe Moshfegh, Joseph Baskin

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.