Law Commons^™

Montana V. Wyoming: An Opportunity To Right The Course For Coalbed Methane Development And Prior Appropriation, Michelle Bryan Mudd

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

Part I of this Article provides a brief background on the Yellowstone River Compact and the Montana v. Wyoming litigation. This part further explains the Special Master’s analysis of the CBM issue, as well as the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on improved irrigation efficiency. When viewed together, these decisions provide an important framework for determining how the parties’ regulation of CBM development should proceed. Part II then describes the magnitude of the CBM groundwater pumping issue and asserts that the posture of the Montana v. Wyoming case provides a unique opportunity not only to set Powder River Basin CBM development …

A Water Story With Original Jurisdiction And A Doctrine For Changing Uses, Melosa Granda

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

This is a story of how two rivers in the remote reaches of Wyoming and Montana, and the underlying water, became a federal case before the United States Supreme Court. It is an account of a local water dispute whose resolution will likely impact the course of water law, and more importantly, water throughout the entire country.

Proceedings Of The 2011 California Water Law Symposium (Wls). The End Of Paper Water: Natural Limits, Unlimited Demands And Reliable Supply, Paul S. Kibel, Anthony Austin, Melosa Granda, Luthien L. Niland

CUEL - Center for Urban Environmental Law

Proceedings of the 2011 California Water Law Symposium held at Golden Gate University School of Law on January 22, 2011.

Alice In Groundwater Land: Water Supply Assessments And Subsurface Water Supplies, Kevin M. O'Brien

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

The purpose of this Article is to explore the preparation of Water Supply Assessments in the context of subsurface water supplies. The term “subsurface water supplies” is used here rather than “groundwater” because, as discussed below, the proponent of a development project may propose to utilize a subsurface water supply (such as water produced from beneath the surface of land via a well or a flowing spring) that is not properly classified as groundwater because it falls within the legal definition of subterranean stream flow. In such a case, the supply would be subject to the water rights permitting jurisdiction …

Friant Dam Holding Contracts: Not An Entitlement To Water Supply Under Sb 610, Barry Epstein

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

Nearly ten years ago, California’s Legislature enacted Senate Bill (SB) 610, a new law requiring that any proposed large development project receiving local land use approvals be supported by a Water Supply Assessment demonstrating available water supply to meet the project’s 20-year forecast water demand. While some, perhaps most, proposed large development projects are within the service territory of large, public or private municipal water purveyors whose entitlement to the water they deliver is well-established (though not necessarily adequate or secure), developments outside the service territory of such water purveyors can require more scrutiny of the underlying water rights entitlement …

Water Rights Law - Peterson V. Department Of The Interior: Are Contract Rights Ever Property Rights Under The Reclamation Reform Act?, Charlotte Robertson

Golden Gate University Law Review

In Peterson v. Department of the Interior the Ninth Circuit held that section 203(b) of the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982 (RRA), a comprehensive amendment of the Federal Reclamation Act, did not unconstitutionally take the property of state Water Districts in California's Central Valley without due process or compensation. The court found that pre-existing water delivery contracts with the Bureau of Reclamation did not confer a constitutionally protectable right to receive federally subsidized water upon the Water Districts. In Peterson, the first ruling by any circuit court on a direct challenge to the RRA, the Ninth Circuit examined the retroactive …

Federal Jurisdiction, Williamson B.C. Chang

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indian Law, Margaret Crow

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indian Law, Mark R. Peterson, May Lee Tong

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indian Law, Jeffrey A. Titus

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indigenous Peoples, Human Rights And Natural Resource Development: Chile's Mapuche Peoples And The Right To Water, Lila Barrera-Hernández

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

This paper is based on the contention, included in the 1997 Proposed American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, that "traditional collective systems for control and use of land, territory and resources, including bodies of water and coastal areas, are a necessary condition for [indigenous peoples'] survival, social organization, development and their individual and collective well-being." It intends to present and analyze some of the issues facing the Mapuche peoples of Chile as they fight to maintain control of water resources in their territories. The right to water is chosen, amongst other human rights also at stake in the …

Aligning Visions For The Bay-Delta: Market-Based Ecosystem Restoration Through Agricultural Efficiency Improvements, Derek Adrian Hoye

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

This Comment proposes a comprehensive solution that could generate enormous water savings by increasing the efficiency of agriculture. Part II outlines the basics of California water law, specifically focusing on laws pertaining to water conservation and transfer. Part III analyzes the systems used in three other states to deal with water shortages and declining ecosystems. Part IV presents a proposal for conserving agricultural water, promoting irrigation efficiency through an educational outreach program, and using the water-transfer market as an economic incentive for efficiency. This proposal supplements the recommendations of the Strategic Plan with practical implementation analysis and achievable goals.

Grasp On Water: A Natural Resource That Eludes Nafta's Notion Of Investment, Paul S. Kibel

Publications

This Article begins by outlining the hydrologic and legal restraints to private ownership of water resources. It then details the provisions of NAFTA that pertain to private rights in water, and reports on two highprofile water entitlement cases that have arisen under NAFTA's foreign investor protection regime. The piece concludes by observing that the experience of United States of America (U.S.) federal courts with state water law may provide a jurisprudential template to bring NAFTA into alignment with existing domestic water law and international water treaties.

Rio Grande Designs: Texans' Nafta Water Claim Against Mexico, Paul S. Kibel, Jonathan R. Schultz

Publications

Our article begins with an analysis of the historical context and key provisions in the 1944 Rivers Treaty between Mexico and the United States. Next, we explain the expropriation claims process established by NAFTA's Chapter 11 and describe the environmental controversy that has arisen over its implementation. We follow with an account of the Texans' NAFTA water claim against Mexico, including an analysis of this claim's relation to the Tulare Lake decision and parallel dispute resolution proceedings at the International and Boundary Waters Commission.

At the end of this review, our finding is that the Texans' NAFTA water claim against …

California Emergency Services Act. Water Shortage Emergencies, Department Of Water Resources

California Agencies

California Govt. Code sec. 8550 et seq.
California Water Code sec. 350 et seq.

Colorado River Basin Study. Report To The Western Water Policy Review Advisory Committee, Dale Pontius

Federal Documents

This report cannot possibly cover all the issues of concern in the Colorado River basin. The basin is vast and diverse geographically, ethnically, and politically. Conflicts over water are part of its history, as water has been the defining resource in the settlement and development of the Colorado River basin. A complex set of laws, a treaty, court decrees, contracts, agreements, regulations and traditions of use have evolved over this past century which have governed water policy and management decisions. Over the last few decades, new social values have emerged in the basin and across the country which reflect an …

Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin. Final Report. Report To The Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission, Ernie Niemi, Tom Mcguckin

Federal Documents

In September, 1996, the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission contracted with ECONorthwest to study the major problems associated with the growing competition for scarce water and related resources in the Upper Rio Grande Basin, and to make recommendations for appropriate federal policies and actions for addressing the problems. This is our final report. The study covers the area from the headwaters, in Colorado, to Ft. Quitman, Texas (see map).

In this report we identify problems and make recommendations associated with the growing competition for scarce water and related resources in the Upper Rio Grande Basin. Our definition of problems …

Public Trust Doctrine Applicable To Water Rights, Assembly Committee On Water, Parks And Wildlife

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

A Guide To California Water Right Permits, California Water Resources Control Board

California Agencies

No abstract provided.

California's Water Future, Assembly Committee On Water, Parks And Wildlife

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

Water Allocation In California - Legal Rights And Reform Needs, Institute Of Government Studies

California Agencies

No abstract provided.

Governor's Commission To Review California Water Rights Law: Final Report, Governor's Commission To Review California Water Rights Law

California Agencies

No abstract provided.

Contract Between The State Of California Department Of Water Resources And The Metropolitan Water District Of Southern California For A Water Supply, Department Of Water Resources

California Agencies

Contract Between the State of California Department of Water Resources and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for a Water Supply, November 4, 1960 (As amended to February 1, 1973).