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Full-Text Articles in Law
Framing Water Policy In A Carbon Affected And Carbon Constrained Environment, Noah D. Hall, Robert H. Abrams
Framing Water Policy In A Carbon Affected And Carbon Constrained Environment, Noah D. Hall, Robert H. Abrams
Noah D Hall
Climate change driven by greenhouse gas emissions is substantially altering water availability while increasing water demand. Shifts in domestic energy policy and production, while needed to confront the challenge of climate change, may further stress the nation’s water resources. These changes and new demands will be most severe in regions that are already experiencing water stresses and conflicts. This article examines the extent of the changes in water supply and demand by assessing how water conflicts will be addressed in the four overarching water use categories: water for population security, water for ecological security, water for energy security, and water …
Protecting Freshwater Resources In The Era Of Global Water Markets: Lessons Learned From Bottled Water, Noah D. Hall
Protecting Freshwater Resources In The Era Of Global Water Markets: Lessons Learned From Bottled Water, Noah D. Hall
Noah D Hall
Throughout human history, water has defined our sense of place. American water law reflects the connections between water and local people, communities, and the environment. Against this backdrop, global water markets have developed to sell and export this increasingly precious resource. Water markets are recognized in international trade law and take many forms, from tankers of freshwater crossing the Mediterranean to bottles of spring water coming to America from distant pacific islands. While the scale of water sales and exports is still relatively small, this emerging market represents a new challenge for management of water resources. This article examines the …
Climate Change And Freshwater Resources, Noah D. Hall, Bret B. Stuntz, Robert H. Abrams
Climate Change And Freshwater Resources, Noah D. Hall, Bret B. Stuntz, Robert H. Abrams
Noah D Hall
The Earth’s climate is warming. This is the unequivocal conclusion of climate scientists. Despite the complexities of climatology, certain consistent trends emerge with implications for water availability: as the world gets warmer, it will experience increased regional variability in precipitation, with more frequent heavy precipitation events and more susceptibility to drought. These simple facts will have a profound impact on freshwater resources throughout the United States, as the warmer climate will reduce available water supplies and increase water demand. Unfortunately, current water law and policy are not up to the new challenges of climate change and resulting pressures on freshwater …
Federal And State Laws Regarding Bottled Water – Testimony Before The House Oversight And Government Reform Committee, Domestic Policy Subcommittee, Noah D. Hall
Noah D Hall
Water bottling is big business and getting bigger, growing by about ten percent annually over the past five years. The most important environmental concerns from a legal and regulatory perspective relate to the impact of water extraction to fill the billions of bottles Americans purchase every year. While water bottling has almost no impact on the total national freshwater supply, the majority of bottled water comes from groundwater which has a direct hydrologic connection to springs and other vulnerable surface waters. Thus, even relatively small water withdrawals for bottled water can produce significant impacts at the local scale on other …
Toward A New Horizontal Federalism: Interstate Water Management In The Great Lakes Region, Noah D. Hall
Toward A New Horizontal Federalism: Interstate Water Management In The Great Lakes Region, Noah D. Hall
Noah D Hall
This article presents a new model for environmental policy, called cooperative horizontal federalism. The cooperative horizontal federalism approach utilizes a constitutional mechanism for states to bind themselves to common substantive and procedural environmental protection standards, implemented individually with regional resources and enforcement. Here, the concept of cooperative horizontal federalism model is illustrated through the recently proposed Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. Under this proposed compact, the eight Great Lakes states would cooperatively manage the world’s largest freshwater resource under common minimum standards, which are then incorporated into state law and implemented individually. This cooperative horizontal federalism approach …