Water Law Commons^™

Center For Biological Diversity V. U.S. Bureau Of Land Management, Erika C. Rader

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Ctr. for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Bureau of Land Mgmt. marks the Ninth Circuit’s second time considering the Willow Project, which plans to drill oil in Alaska. Environmental plaintiffs brought a series of claims under NEPA, the Reserves Act, ANILCA, and the ESA to stop or stall the Project. Plaintiffs focused on the BLM’s use of a “full field development standard” in assessing alternatives to the Project. Despite the range of claims, the Ninth Circuit allowed the Project to move forward, but on remand required the BLM to explain its reasoning for departing from the full field development standard …

The Hidden Narrative: How The Clean Water Act Wetlands Program Culminated In Sackett, Sam Kalen

Wyoming Law Review

Two federal employees lay murdered on property presumably being developed in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA).¹ Should those federal officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been there? Was the land even subject to the CWA’s Section 404 wetland program? Or possibly, was this yet another version of what confronted an Idaho couple back in 2012, this time in the central reaches of sparsely populated Wyoming? After all, the Idaho couple, Mr. & Mrs. Sackett, argued that their property, just 300 feet from Priest Lake, Idaho, was not a wetland capable of being regulated by the …

Considerations For Assigned Water After Expiration Of The 2007 Guidelines, Kathryn Sorensen, Sarah Porter, Anne Castle, John Fleck, Eric Kuhn, Jack Schmidt, Katherine Tara

The Traveling Wilburys of the Colorado River

As Colorado River supplies and demands reach razor-thin margins, new tools to provide adaptive capacity will play a critical role in sustaining communities across the West. We must reduce our consumption of water, while finding ways to cushion the impact. One of the most innovative tools for doing this, developed over the last two decades, is “Assigned Water” - giving users the ability to store conserved water earmarked for their own future use. Originally developed as “Intentionally Created Surplus” in the 2007 Colorado River Interim Guidelines, Assigned Water has been revised and expanded through U.S. Mexico Treaty Minutes and as …

Expanding The Good Samaritan Program: Cleaning Up The Colorado River, One Mine At A Time, Jordan Carlson

Wyoming Law Review

The headwaters of the Colorado River Basin supply nearly 90% of the river’s flow and are among the most hydrologically sensitive areas in the U.S. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, westward expansion and the allure of gold and other valuable minerals drove thousands of miners into the basin. When the mining boom ended, the mines were left behind. Today, thousands of abandoned hardrock mine sites continue to leach acidity and heavy metals into streams, leaving a lasting impact on water quality. For decades, strict environmental liability laws made cleanup nearly impossible, creating a chilling effect that discouraged even …

Comparison Of Groundwater Ownership Regimes In Ten Jurisdictions Across Five Continents, Gabriel Eckstein, Theo Buchler, Caleb Cook, Heping Dang, Robyn Stein, Stefano Burchi, Gabriela Cuadrado Quesada, Juan Pablo Galeano, Eric Garner, Amy Hardberger, Imad Antoine Ibrahim, Oudi Kgomongwe

Faculty Scholarship

The regulation of groundwater remains underdeveloped globally and often lags behind the domestic governance of surface water. As a result, groundwater is often subject to unfettered extraction, uses, and contamination. A clear understanding of ownership is central to the success of domestic regulations. However, the types of ownership regime in place in nations around the world are poorly documented in the academic literature. This study addresses that gap through a comparative analysis of domestic groundwater ownership regimes across ten jurisdictions in nine countries spanning five continents. It identifies three dominant models of groundwater ownership: private ownership, public ownership, and non-ownership …

Allocating Electricity, Alexandra Klass, Dave Owen

Articles

The U.S. electricity system is premised on the ideas that utilities have a duty to serve all customers in their service territories and that electricity supply should always meet demand. Until recently, there has been little reason to question these foundational premises. U.S. electricity demand has remained flat for over a decade, and during earlier periods of growth, new energy generation plants were relatively easy to build. Now, however, electricity experts predict massive load growth—most notably from data centers to power artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency—and building new power plants is no longer easy.

Major efforts are underway to increase electricity …

Never Cool Enough: Legal And Policy Challenges To Keeping Data Centers And Communities Empowered In A Warming World, Cristina M. Banahan, Diana B. Wilkinson

Lewis & Clark Law Review

In a rapidly evolving world, artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency are two technologies at the forefront of the future. Although these developments promise many potential societal benefits and revenue, they come with a price. The data processing required to operate these new technologies demands a large amount of energy, using water to cool the systems and enable them to run without overheating. With such high water and energy demands, the benefits from these technological advancements come at a steep environmental cost. Despite the negative environmental impacts of these data centers, the Trump Administration continues to roll back environmental protections. The …

Powering The Machine, Draining The Planet: Whether U.S. Environmental Law Is Equipped To Regulate The Energy And Water Demands Of Ai Data Centers, Michael Marcu

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Artificial intelligence (AI) data centers have become one of the United States' fastest-growing and least-regulated sources of environmental stress. In 2024 alone, U.S. data centers consumed 183 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity more than the entire nation of Pakistan and consumed an estimated 17 billion gallons of water (IEA, 2025; Berkeley Lab, 2024). By 2030, electricity demand from these facilities is projected to reach 426 TWh, a 133% increase in six years (Pew Research Center, 2025). This paper examines whether the existing U.S. environmental regulatory framework put by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the …

Cobalt's Climate Paradox: Global Ambitions For A Greener Future Rely On Blood-Stained Hands, Ashleigh Wootton

Natural Resources Journal

The global effort to mitigate climate change increasingly relies on widespread electrification, with lithium-ion batteries at its core and the key minerals required for their production concentrated in countries uniquely vulnerable to exploitation. Lithium-ion battery production relies heavily on cobalt, a critical mineral primarily sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which supplies approximately 70 percent of the world’s cobalt. As demand for cobalt is projected to rise sharply, the DRC has become indispensable to the global clean energy transition. Cobalt extraction in the DRC is closely linked to severe human rights abuses, including forced labor, child labor, …

Rivers Of Sovereignty: The Epa’S New Water Quality Standards Rule As A Potential Channel For Revitalizing Tribal Reserved Water Rights, Mostyn Josty

Cardozo Law Review

This Note explores the federal government’s evolving approach to its obligation to protect tribal reserved water rights through a case study of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2024 Water Quality Standards Regulatory Revisions to Protect Tribal Reserved Rights rule (the “WQS Rule”). It argues that while the WQS Rule represents a step forward in safeguarding tribal water rights, the legal challenge it faces underscores broader issues of federalism, administrative authority, and the country’s fluctuating commitment to tribal sovereignty. The Note examines the WQS Rule’s legal foundation, its potential challenges, and the implications for tribal self-determination, emphasizing the need for a …

The Italian Rice Production: Between Tradition And Globalization, Bianca Gardella Tedeschi

FIU Law Review

The Article examines the Italian rice sector as a case study in how law mediates the tensions between territorial agricultural traditions and the pressures of globalization. Focusing on the rice-producing districts of Piedmont and Lombardy, the Article argues that the resilience of Italian rice production cannot be explained solely by agronomic or economic factors. Rather, it depends on a dense legal and institutional framework that structures water governance, quality control, market organization, and contractual relations across the supply chain.

The Article develops three principal claims. First, it shows that the competitiveness of Italian rice production rests on an integrated model …