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Full-Text Articles in Law
Water Banks In Washington State: A Tool For Climate Resilience, Jennifer J. Seely
Water Banks In Washington State: A Tool For Climate Resilience, Jennifer J. Seely
Washington Law Review
Water banks—a tool for exchanging senior water rights and offsetting new ones—can address multiple problems in contemporary water law. In the era of climate change, water banks enable needed flexibility and resilience in water allocation. As growing cities require new water rights, water banks can repurpose old water for new uses. These advantages should lead the Washington State Legislature to incentivize water banks, but in the 2018 “Hirst fix” it embraced habitat restoration as a false equivalent for water. The Legislature is rightfully concerned about the speculation that some private water banks allow. But overall, water banks enable new and …
Treading Water: How Citizens, States, And The Environmental Protection Agency Can Restore Proper Criminal Enforcement Of The Clean Water Act's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, Marley Kimelman
Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy
Upon the passage of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) in 1972, primary responsibility for protecting the United States' water quality and preventing water pollution shifted from the states to the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). The program at the heart of the Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”), requires anyone who discharges pollutants into the waters of the United States to abide by the terms of a permit issued under the program. If a discharge occurs in violation of the permit or without a permit, and prosecutors are able to prove the responsible party acted with ordinary …
From Loon Lake To Chuckanut Creek: The Rise And Fall Of Environmental Values In Washington's Water Resources Act, Rachael Paschal Osborn
From Loon Lake To Chuckanut Creek: The Rise And Fall Of Environmental Values In Washington's Water Resources Act, Rachael Paschal Osborn
Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy
The year 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the Water Resources Act of 1971, Washington’s program to protect instream flows in state rivers. Implementation has been controversial and, even a half century later, incomplete. Part 1 introduces the Act. Part 2 examines its legislative history, and administrative development by the Department of Ecology. The Act innovated water allocation, putting instream flows and public uses of rivers on par with out-of-stream water rights. But river protection labors under serious limitations, chief among them the subordination of instream flows to pre-existing water rights. And, although only half of Washington’s watersheds are protected …