Water Law Commons^™

Winner, Best Appellate Brief In The 2006 Native American Law Student Association Moot Court Competition, Sean P. Krispinsky, Sarah J. Bannister

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Crystals And Mud In Nature, Richard J. Lazarus

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Professor James Salzman has written a wonderful article, which promises an equally wonderful book. His article intelligently and thoughtfully examines the forces that compete, conflict, and combine in the creation of laws relating to drinking water. These include, of course, the physical characteristics of the resource itself and how the resource relates to essential biological needs of humankind. But as Professor Salzman demonstrates, the biological role is only one of several perspectives on drinking water relevant to the kind of legal rules that apply to it. The article describes drinking water as a cultural resource, a social resource, and an …

Drinking From A Deep Well: The Public Trust Doctrine And Western Water Law, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

American water law reflects the diverse geography and population patterns of this expansive country.1 In the eastern states, where water is rather abundant, the doctrine of riparian rights dominates water law.2 The arid western states, in contrast, rejected the doctrine of riparian rights in favor of the doctrine of prior appropriation due to a natural scarcity of water and increasing population growth.3 The western states provide fertile ground to consider the burdens of a rapidly growing region on already scarce water resources.4 My thesis is that the public trust doctrine is being underutilized by the states and that the optimal …

Indian Water Rights And The Federal Trust Responsibility, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

Although federal policy shifted from assimilation to pro-tribal positions, the federal courts have quite consistently supported Indian reserved water rights. Indian water rights, however, were neglected by Congress in favor of non-Indian agricultural development in the arid West. Modem litigation over tribal rights takes place primarily in state courts that are tempted to interpret the few U.S. Supreme Court cases in ways that protect existing non-Indian uses over senior tribal water rights. Modern Indian water rights settlements tend to protect existing non- Indian uses while providing substantial benefits for tribes, but in a haphazard manner. This article examines the history …

Indian Water Rights: Litigation And Settlements, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

This article provides a brief overview of the law of Indian and federal reserved water rights and continues with an examination of the Snake River Water Rights Act. The Act serves as a vehicle for discussion of what is right and what is wrong with the current Indian water rights settlement process. Finally, the article suggests that the Administration modify the portion of its criteria and procedures for Indian water settlements dealing with federal financial contributions. These criteria and procedures need to more accurately reflect the realities of past settlements and promote more successes like the Snake River Water Rights …

Hetch Hetchy: To Drain Or Not To Drain, Brian E. Gray

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Mixed Blessings: The Great Lakes Compact And Agreement, The Ijc, And International Dispute Resolution, Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For scholars of international law and international dispute resolution, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact and Agreement may seem a mixed blessing. On the one hand, they promise environmental cooperation and management of the Great Lakes at an unprecedented scale. The agreements have been heralded as a tremendous advancement in state-provincial relations. On the other hand, international scholars should be nervous for what the agreements signify for international law and dispute resolution. The Compact and Agreement are remarkable for replacing an already functioning regulatory regime: the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty, administered by the International Joint Commission.

This …

Pakootas V. Teck Cominco Metals, Ltd.: Finding A Sustainable Solution To Transboundary Pollution, Kate Mcdonald

Georgia Law Review

Transboundary pollution has become an issue of increasing concern as scientists learn more about the global effects of industry pollutants and the harm they pose to human health. - Advances in our understanding of the environment opened the door to disputes over responsibility for prevention and mitigation of the harmful effects of pollutants and created a search for techniques for international conflict resolution. Recently, industrial pollution of the Columbia River resulted in a legal battle between Washington citizens and a Canadian corporation over who was financially responsible for restoring the health of a portion of the river lying within the …

Weasel Numbers, Reza Dibadj

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Great Lakes—St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact

Water Law Documents

The states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby solemnly covenant and agree with each other, upon enactment of concurrent legislation by the respective state legislatures and consent by the Congress of the United States as follows:

ARTICLE 1: SHORT TITLE, DEFINITIONS, PURPOSES AND DURATION

ARTICLE 2: ORGANIZATION

ARTICLE 3: GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES

ARTICLE 4: WATER MANAGEMENT AND REGULATION

ARTICLE 5: TRIBAL CONSULTATION

ARTICLE 6: PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

ARTICLE 7: DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND ENFORCEMENT

ARTICLE 8: ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS

ARTICLE 9: EFFECTUATION

Great Lakes—St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement, The State Of Illinois, The State Of Indiana, The State Of Michigan, The State Of Minnesota, The State Of New York, The State Of Ohio, The Province Of Ontario, The Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania, The Government Of Québec, The State Of Wisconsin

Water Law Documents

1. The objectives of this Agreement are:
a. To act together to protect, conserve and restore the Waters of the Great Lakes—St. Lawrence River Basin because current lack of scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to protect the Basin Ecosystem;
b. To facilitate collaborative approaches to Water management across the Basin to protect, conserve, restore, improve and efficiently and effectively manage the Waters and Water Dependent Natural Resources of the Basin;
c. To promote co-operation among the Parties by providing common and regional mechanisms to evaluate Proposals to Withdraw Water;
d. To create a …

Water And Wastewater Systems In New Mexico: A Statutory Review And Comparison, Utton Transboundary Resources Center, Office Of The State Engineer, Institute Of Public Law (Ipl) Unmsol

Publications

No abstract provided.

Taking The Stand: The Lessons Of The Three Men Who Took The Japanese American Internment To Court, Lorraine K. Bannai

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Wiley Rutledge And Executive Detention: A Judicial Conscience For His Time And Ours, Craig Green

ExpressO

Wiley Rutledge is a Justice whom biographers forgot -- until John Ferren's recent book. This Review of Ferren's work shows that Rutledge was uniquely important in WWII cases concerning executive detention. Comparing cases from that era to Rasul, Hamdi, and Hamdan, I suggest that Rutledge's legal approach (and the continuation of such efforts on today's Court) uncover two novel arguments for judicial review of military commissions. Rutledge's story also invites us to rethink how we evaluate judicial "heroes," and which judicial biographies are truly worth reading.

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

In Re Flood Litigation: When It Rains, The Lawsuits Pour: Considering Social, Public And Economic Policy When Determining Duty In West Virginia, Seth P. Hayes

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Of Rainbows And Rivers: Lessons For Telecommunications Spectrum Policy From Transitions In Property Rights And Commons In Water Law, Dale B. Thompson

ExpressO

A number of industries utilize the telecommunications spectrum to provide billions of dollars of services. However, some have noted that technological development and implementation of spectrum applications have not progressed as fast in the United States as in other parts of the world To improve technological development, many have recommended significant changes in United States policy of allocating spectrum, some based on a “property rights” approach, and others based on a “commons” approach. This article takes a novel approach to this problem, by applying lessons from our two hundred year history of water law to spectrum policy. Also, instead of …

Washington's Municipal Water Rights Bill Of 2003: Providing "Certainty And Flexibility" Or Violating The Separation Of Powers Doctrine?, Jason T. Morgan

Washington Law Review

The separation of powers doctrine limits the ability of the legislature to retroactively overrule judicial constructions of existing statutes. It is the province of the judiciary to interpret the law. Once a court interprets a statute, the legislature can only amend that statute prospectively. In the 1998 case of Theodoratus v. State Department of Ecology, the Supreme Court of Washington interpreted the Water Code to require that the proper measure of a water right is the amount of water actually beneficially used, and not the capacity of a water delivery system. In 2003, the Washington Legislature responded to the …

A Hydrogeological Perspective Of The Status Of Ground Water Resources Under The Un Watercourse Convention, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

When the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses in 1997, it took a decisive step in recognizing the important role that transboundary ground water resources play in human progress and development. In so doing, it also acknowledged the need to establish principles of law governing this "invisible" but valuable natural resource. Transboundary ground water historically has been neglected in treaties, ignored in projects with international implications, and cursorily misunderstood in much of legal discourse.

While the Convention provides substantial clarification on the status of ground water under international law, it also leaves considerable …

Swancc'S Clear Statement: A Delimitation Of Congress's Commerce Clause Authority To Regulate Water Pollution, Matthew B. Baumgartner

Michigan Law Review

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of federal water pollution law is wetland regulation. Wetlands are typically marshy or swampy areas with hydrologic soils and vegetation. Their ecological value is widely recognized, but wetlands often stand in the way of lucrative commercial development projects. Thus, the battle over the validity of federal wetland regulation is a classic fight between environmentalists and industry. The wetlands controversy is also paradigmatic of the perpetual struggle to define the constitutional limits to federal regulation. The country's main water pollution control law, the Clean Water Act (CWA), purports to regulate all "navigable waters," which it defines …

On Integrity: Some Considerations For Water Law, Christine A. Klein

UF Law Faculty Publications

Expanding upon the aspects of integrity protected under the Clean Water Act, this Article will explore the relevance to water law of chemical, physical, ecosystem, social, and ethical integrity. Just as the Clean Water Act intended to prevent unacceptable "perturbations" of ecosystems, so also this Article will consider the extent to which the law itself may work an unacceptable perturbation of fundamental hydrologic and social principles. In many instances, water policy compartmentalizes the law in ways that have little to do with hydrologic reality and in ways that are antithetical to wholeness and integrity. Examples include the legal bifurcation of …

Slides: Establish True Basin-Wide Institutions: The Return To The River Basin As The Unit Of Management, Charles W. (Chuck) Howe

Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Charles Howe, University of Colorado.

13 pages and 10 slides.

Contains references.

Slides: The Multi-Species Conservation Program: What It Means For Water Users And The Environment In The Lower Basin, Joe Vanderhorst, Bob Johnson

Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Joe Vanderhorst, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Respondent on US-Mexico Issues and Other Lower Basin Matters: Bob Johnson, US Bureau of Reclamation.

26 slides.

New Mexico Water Stake In The Colorado River, Estevan R. Lopez

Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Estevan R. Lopez, Interstate Stream Commission, New Mexico.

2 pages.

Slides: "Tightening Water Supplies”: Arizona And The Lower Basin States, Herb Guenther

Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Herb Guenther, Arizona Department of Water Resources.

31 slides.

How Does The Cap Water Bank Influence Short-Term And Long-Term Water Supply Vulnerability In The Basin?, Larry R. Dozier, Bob Johnson

Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Larry R. Dozier, Central Arizona Project.

Respondent on US-Mexico Issues and Other Lower Basin Matters: Bob Johnson, US Bureau of Reclamation.

6 pages (includes color illustrations).

Slides: Do The Upper Basin States Have Enough Water To Grow?: Is There Enough Water To Go Around?, Don A. Ostler

Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Don A. Ostler, Upper Colorado River Commission.

24 slides.

Slides: Statewide Water Supply Initiative And Colorado River Compact Development, Rick Brown

Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Rick Brown, Colorado Water Conservation Board.

29 slides.

Slides: Tightening Water Supplies: Key Colorado River Issues For Wyoming, Patrick T. Tyrrell

Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Patrick T. Tyrrell, Wyoming State Engineer.

14 slides.

Slides: Flowing Down The Basin: Federal Litigation On The Colorado River, Michael Gheleta

Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Michael Gheleta, US Department of Justice.

53 slides.