Water Law Commons^™

Water Rights, The Public Trust Doctrine, And The Protection Of Instream Uses, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Our society uses water for a variety of productive purposes, including domestic, agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and energy development. Most of these uses require physical removal of water from watercourses or ground water aquifers. Water can also serve useful purposes, however, when it remains a lake or stream. Flowing water helps to maintain water quality and furthers other uses such as recreation, aesthetic values, and ecological interests—referred to as “instream uses.”

Large quantities of water must remain in place to safeguard instream uses. At the same time, the increasing demands of consumptive water users are significantly reducing streamflows and lake levels …

Substantive Decision-Making Under The Washington Shoreline Management Act, William H. Chapman

Seattle University Law Review

The specific purposes of this Article are twofold: first, an analysis of the SMA is set forth and then used in simple statistical comparisons to evaluate decisions rendered by local governments, superior courts, and the Shorelines Hearings Board (SHB) during the period 1974-1983; second, to present a numerical model that represents the verbal interpretation of the SMA with a simple arithmetical equation using weighted variables. These variables correspond to objectives identified in interpretations of the SMA. Decisions of the SHB and appellate courts during this period are explained in a statistical manner through use of the model. Neither computer7 nor …