Water Law Commons^™

We Still Have Lessons To Learn From Woburn, And Flint Is A Good Place To Start, Rose Mooney

Notre Dame Law Review

By analyzing a previous water contamination lawsuit, this Note offers advice to litigants battling their current water crises. Specifically, this Note assesses the water contamination crisis that occurred in Woburn, Massachusetts, from the mid- to late-twentieth century and offers guidance to litigants fighting for clean water in Flint, Michigan, today. There is strength in this type of comparison: “Change in legislative actions and policy- making often result from previous environmental disasters out of which the public demands a change. In other words, we arguably learn from these disasters and effect changes to prevent them from occurring again.” The Woburn litigation …

Treading Water: How Citizens, States, And The Environmental Protection Agency Can Restore Proper Criminal Enforcement Of The Clean Water Act's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, Marley Kimelman

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

Upon the passage of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) in 1972, primary responsibility for protecting the United States' water quality and preventing water pollution shifted from the states to the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). The program at the heart of the Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”), requires anyone who discharges pollutants into the waters of the United States to abide by the terms of a permit issued under the program. If a discharge occurs in violation of the permit or without a permit, and prosecutors are able to prove the responsible party acted with ordinary …

From Loon Lake To Chuckanut Creek: The Rise And Fall Of Environmental Values In Washington's Water Resources Act, Rachael Paschal Osborn

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

The year 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the Water Resources Act of 1971, Washington’s program to protect instream flows in state rivers. Implementation has been controversial and, even a half century later, incomplete. Part 1 introduces the Act. Part 2 examines its legislative history, and administrative development by the Department of Ecology. The Act innovated water allocation, putting instream flows and public uses of rivers on par with out-of-stream water rights. But river protection labors under serious limitations, chief among them the subordination of instream flows to pre-existing water rights. And, although only half of Washington’s watersheds are protected …

Brief Of Amici Curiae Law Professors In Support Of Defendants, Robert Abrams

Amicus Briefs

No abstract provided.

How The Safe Drinking Water Act & The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, And Liability Act Fail Emerging Contaminants: A Per- And Polyfluoralkyl Substances (Pfas) Case Study, Carly Johnson

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

The Glass Is Half Full But Contaminated: An Analysis Of The United States’ Financial Investment In The Drinking Water Infrastructure System, Maya Marshall

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

A Burning River: Why New Directives May Signal A Continuance In The Downfall Of The Ohio River, Vincent G. Kleindienst

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Mega-Dams And Indigenous Human Rights, Kate E. Britt

Law Librarian Scholarship

Mega-Dams and Indigenous Human Rights (“Mega-Dams”) is a 2020 monograph by Itzchak Kornfeld. Kornfeld is a law professor with extensive experience working with governments and non-governmental organizations on the legal and geological aspects of water development, water sustainability, and sustainable development of land. Mega-Dams reflects this expertise, as well as the author's express opinions.

A Housing Crisis: The Story Of The Syringa Mobile Home Park And The Law Clinic's Quest For Water, Jessica M. Long

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Public Trust Doctrine And The Climate Crisis: Panacea Or Platitude?, Joseph Regalia

Scholarly Works

Over a year of shutting down the global economy during the COVID pandemic achieved about .01 degrees of improvement in global warming. Not even a drop in the bucket. We continue to face a monumental climate crisis. And of the many ways that crisis threatens our environment, winnowing water resources is one of the scariest. One solution that many scholars have turned to is the public trust doctrine. At first blush, this doctrine sounds like a panacea for water management problems: When our water resources are threatened enough that current and future citizen’s access to it is in peril, the …

The Pearl Of Siberia: The Emerging Threat To Lake Baikal, Blake Donithan

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Regulatory Agency Capture: How The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Approved The Mountain Valley Pipeline, Aakshi Agarwal

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

The FERC’s history of approving nearly 100% of pipelines and divisive pipeline cases like the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Mountain Valley Pipeline have driven landowners’ long-standing claims of regulatory agency capture of the FERC. The present research substantiates the claim of capture with a case study of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and uncovers that the FERC is both culturally and corrosively captured. This research also suggests that the capture of the FERC began at its conception during the natural gas crisis and subsequent natural gas bubble, which caused the FERC to follow the industry’s lead. These findings indicate that the …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Disadvantaged Unincorporated Communities And The Struggle For Water Justice In California, Jonathan K. London, Amanda L. Fencl, Sara Watterson, Yasmina Choueiri, Phoebe Seaton, Jennifer Jarin, Mia Dawson, Alfonso Aranda, Aaron King, Peter Nguyen, Camille Pannu, Laurel Firestone, Colin Bailey

Faculty Scholarship

This article maps a meshwork of formal and informal elements of places called Disadvantaged Unincorporated Communities (DUCs) to understand the role of informality in producing unjust access to safe drinking water in California’s San Joaquin Valley. It examines the spatial, racial, and class-based dimensions of informality. The paper aims to both enrich the literature on informality studies and use the concept of informality to expand research on DUCs and water access. We use socio-spatial analyses of the relationships between informality and water justice to reach the following conclusions: DUCs face severe problems in access to safe drinking water; disparities in …

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (Sgma): Long Overdue, But Is It Living Up To Its Potential?, Bailey Mknelly

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis discusses the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), California’s first statewide groundwater regulatory legislation. The act established the formation of groundwater basins and local governing bodies called Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) which are tasked with creating Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs). More specifically, this thesis examines how the structure of GSAs affects stakeholder accessibility, community engagement, and transparency. Through a collection of four interviews as well as the use of primary and secondary sources, this paper will explore the potential, and the ultimate shortcomings of SGMAs transparency, particularly in ensuring clean, safe water to historically disenfranchised communities. Using Kern and …

The Acf Water Wars Final Episode: Is Florida Entitled To Greater Flow In The Apalachicola River?, Robert Abrams

Journal Publications

This case marks the second trip to the Supreme Court for Florida’s equitable apportionment case seeking to obtain greater flows into Apalachicola Bay, the estuary of the ApalachicolaChattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin. In a 2018 decision, the Supreme Court reviewed a report of then-Special Master Ralph Lancaster recommending that the Court deny relief to Florida because of the Court’s inability to provide relief without having the Army Corps of Engineers as a party to the litigation. At that time, a 5–4 majority ruled that the Special Master had applied too demanding a standard of proof to the issues surrounding redressability and …

Does The Doctrine Of Equitable Apportionment Apply To Conflicts Between States Over Groundwater Resources When Such Resources Are Derived From An Aquifer That Lies Beneath More Than One State?, Robert Abrams

Journal Publications

The Middle Claiborne Aquifer is a large sand formation that contains groundwater within its sand’s porous spaces. The Aquifer spans beneath Mississippi, Tennessee, and at least six other neighboring states. Since 1886, the City of Memphis has withdrawn water from the aquifer to supply drinking water. Memphis also has withdrawn water for irrigation and industrial purposes. Due to increased water pumping, water levels in the aquifer have dropped, lowering the piezometric head (water pressure) in different locations, including between the two states’ borders. In 2005, Mississippi filed suit against the City of Memphis and the Memphis Light, Gas and Water …

Water Is Life: Law, Systemic Racism, And Water Security In Indian Country, Heather Tanana, Julie Combs, Aila Hoss

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The 21st Century has been marked by significant advancements in technology, from travel to Mars and self-driving cars to smartphones and bitcoin. And yet, at the same time, hundreds of thousands of Native Americans live without access to safe, clean and reliable drinking water. By some estimates, 48% of households on Indian reservations do not have clean water or adequate sanitation. This lack of access has been highlighted by the coronavirus pandemic, but it is not a new issue. Native American communities have long suffered inequities stemming from colonization and perpetrated by federal policy. While the pandemic has devastated many …

Regulating Wave, Tidal And Ocean Thermal Energy, Meinhard Doelle, Theodore Nsoe Adimazoya

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Ocean renewable energy sources hold the potential to contribute to the options of low-carbon energy sources and enhance the efforts by the global community to slow down climate change. In this Chapter, we provide a brief background on the current state of technology and development of wave, tidal and ocean thermal energy and consider their potential as forms of renewable energy as well as the potential negative environmental footprints of ocean renewable energy installation and development. Secondly, we examine the relevant international legal and policy framework governing ocean energy, highlighting in particular, the absence of a global legal instrument that …

Wolastoqiyik And Mi’Kmaq Grandmothers - Land/Water Defenders Sharing And Learning Circle: Generating Knowledge For Action, Sherry Pictou, Janet Conway, Angela Day

Reports & Public Policy Documents

This report is a summary of the Grandmothers/Defenders’ stories and are interwoven with corresponding news articles, press releases, and other public documents. This is followed by an overview of some of the critical common issues and importantly, strategies for moving forward proposed by the Grandmothers/Defenders.

The Grandmother’s Report is a collection of stories told by Wolastoqiyik Grandmother/Defenders against the Sisson Mine in New Brunswick and Mi’kmaq Grandmothers against the Alton Gas project in Nova Scotia at the event, Indigenous Grandmothers Sharing and Learning Circle: Generating Knowledge for Action, held at the Tatamagouche Centre in Nova Scotia, January 26 to 27, …