Water Law Commons^™

California's War Over The Bay-Delta: Historic Failures And Current Battles, Jessica J. Mao

CMC Senior Theses

California has one highly-coveted possession: the Bay-Delta, which is the second largest estuary in the United States. Today, tensions are higher than ever as Southern California continues to grow and demand water from the Delta, agriculture suffers from drought and less-than-promised water allocations, and aquatic life diminishes due to environmentally damaging processes like pumping and exporting of water elsewhere. This paper will examine the historic policies that have shaped how the Delta has been managed, their successes and failures, and current plans in discussion for continuing improvement of the Delta. The Bay-Delta Conservation Plan and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water …

The Judicial Assault On The Clean Water Act, Mark Squillace

Publications

No abstract provided.

Escaping The Sporhase Maze: Protecting State Waters Within The Commerce Clause, Mark S. Davis, Michael Pappas

Publications

Eastern states, though they have enjoyed a history of relatively abundant water, increasingly face the need to conserve water, particularly to protect water-dependent ecosystems. At the same time, growing water demands, climate change, and an emerging water-oriented economy have intensified pressure for interstate water transfers. Thus, even traditionally wet states are seeking to protect or secure their water supplies. However, restrictions on water sales and exports risk running afoul of the Dormant Commerce Clause. This Article offers guidance for states, particularly eastern states concerned with maintaining and improving water-dependent ecosystems, in seeking to restrict water exports while staying within the …

Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (Ms4)--Assigning Responsibility For Pollutants That Reach The Nation's Waters, Robert Abrams

Journal Publications

The United States Supreme Court will review a ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that found the Los Angeles County Flood Control District in violation of its permit under the Clean Water Act for its Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4) discharges into the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers. Segments of those rivers that constitute a part of the MS4 have been paved to improve flood control, and the pollution levels measured as the water moves through those segments and other monitoring locations exceed the amounts allowed by the District’s permit. The District claims that pollution is …

Legal Convergence Of East And West In Contemporary American Water Law, Robert Haskell Abrams

Journal Publications

Legal instrumentalism and legal convergence, two legal constructs, describe how American water law has developed over time. A study of early Eastern and Western water law shows that both systems are instrumentalist at their core and evolved to suit pressing developmental needs. Early on in the East, law was created to protect water use for millers, who used mills to generate power. In the West, riparian systems of the East were rejected in favor of a system that met the needs of settlers in more arid environments. Legal convergence is a concept suggesting that law governing various fields converges over …

The Landsafe Socioecological Development Model For The Customary Commons Of Zambia: Evolution And Formalization, I.P.A. Manning

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Wilderness, Water, And Climate Change, Sandra B. Zellmer

Faculty Law Review Articles

As the nation searches for climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, the pressure to develop water resources within wilderness areas and to exploit the timber, forage, wildlife, fish, and other virtually untapped components of wilderness will become more acute. This Article makes the case that managers and legislatures should not yield to this pressure and argues that, if anything, the need to preserve untrammeled wilderness characteristics is just as imperative today as it was in 1964 when the Wilderness Act was passed The Article examines the potency of the Wilderness Act and a trio of federal water law doctrines-federally reserved water …

Federal Water Law And The 'Double Whammy': How The Bureau Of Reclamation Can Help The West Adapt To Drought And Climate Change, Reed D. Benson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Public Funding Programs For Environmental Water Acquisitions: Origins, Purposes, And Revenue Sources, Reed D. Benson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Water Rights, Markets, And Changing Ecological Conditions, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Conventional environmentalist thought is suspicious of private markets and property rights. The prospect of global climate change, and consequent ecological disruptions, has fueled the call for additional limitations on private markets and property rights. This Essay presents an alternative view. Specifically, this Essay briefly explains why environmental problems generally, and the prospect of changing environmental conditions such as those brought about by climate change in particular, do not counsel further restrictions on private property rights and markets. To the contrary, the prospect of significant environmental changes strengthens the case for greater reliance on property rights and market institutions to address …

The Water Marketing Solution, Mark Squillace

Publications

No abstract provided.

How Tribal Water Rights Are Won In The West: Three Case Studies From The Northwest, Rebecca Cruz Guiao

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

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

Faculty Law Review Articles

This article examines preliminary rulings by the Special Master in Montana v. Wyoming, a Supreme Court case posed to illuminate the water law rules applicable to coalbed methane groundwater withdrawals and to fashion a remedy that better hews to those rules.

Part I 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 coalbed methane issue, as well as the Supreme Court's recent ruling on improved irrigation efficiency.

Part II then describes the magnitude of the coalbed methane groundwater pumping issues and asserts that …

Oklahoma Water Rights: What Good Are They?, Gary Allison

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Statutory And Local Rules In Allocating Water Between Large- And Small-Scale Irrigators In An African River Catchment, Hans Komakech, Madison Condon, Pieter Van Der Zaag

Faculty Scholarship

This paper presents a case study of large- and small-scale irrigators negotiating for access to water from Nduruma River in the Pangani River Basin, Tanzania. The paper shows that despite the existence of a formal statutory water permit system, all users need to conform to the existing local rules in order to secure access to water. The spatial geography of Nduruma is such that smallholder farmers are located upstream and downstream, while large-scale irrigators are in the midstream part of the sub-catchment. There is not enough water in the river to satisfy all demands. The majority of the smallholder farmers …