Sooners Beat Longhorns in Red River Bowl
In a unanimous decision issued June 13, the Supreme Court put an end to a parched Texas municipal utility’s bid to secure an Oklahoma water right. In Tarrant Regional Water District v. Herrmann, the...
View ArticleNew Water Wars in Oregon’s Klamath Basin
These are sad times in Oregon’s Klamath Basin. The state is making national headlines again over water wars pitting farmers and ranchers irrigating lands above Upper Klamath Lake against the Klamath...
View ArticleSquare Pegs in Round Holes
The Western states face two reciprocating and overarching problems in water resources policy. First, water is an increasingly scarce resource facing sharply competitive needs. Climate change is...
View ArticleA Tenuous Truce In Oregon’s Water Wars
A year ago, this blog contribution described the latest battle in a nearly 40-year old water war in Oregon’s Klamath Basin. Now, there is a tenuous peace agreement in place – but it may be short-lived....
View ArticleWho Owns Riverbeds? Putting Matters on Equal Footing.
The ownership of riverbeds can be an important question when development of minerals (coal, oil and gas, etc.) includes lands on which there are non-tidal surface streams. Under what is...
View ArticleCalifornia Groundwater Regulation Enters the 20th Century!
On September 16, 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a trio of bills to establish a statewide regulatory scheme for use of groundwater: Assembly Bill 1739 and Senate Bills 1168 and...
View ArticleWhat? Another homage to Joe Sax?
Yes, and here’s why: Joseph Sax’s writings remain as fresh today as when they were published. This blog— in noting his death earlier this year — described Sax’s revival of the public trust doctrine,...
View ArticleSorry, The Pollywogs Win and Your Crops Lose
Lawyers who regularly practice in the realm of the Clean Water Act (the “Act”) well know that the fight causing the most widespread panic in the regulated community for many months has been the joint...
View ArticleCool Water, Part 2
In a December 2012 blog post, I discussed the tensions raised by “Water for Texas 2012 State Water Plan” between the expected population growth and available water resources in Texas. As water demand...
View ArticlePacific Northwest Water Wars
It may come as a surprise that people fight over water in soggy Oregon and Washington. To be sure, we have not experienced the same level of conflict over competing water needs as our neighbors in the...
View ArticleH.R. 23: A VERY BAD FEDERAL WATER LAW BILL—AND A WORSE PRECEDENT
H.R. 23 is an important and most unfortunate environmental bill currently working its way through the U.S. Congress. Sponsored by California Republican Congressman David Valadeo—with a strong assist...
View ArticleA Win for Appropriative Water Rights
In an unpublished opinion released August 24th, the Ninth Circuit rejected a long waged effort to upend the City of Bend’s water planning by forcing it to abandon its vested surface water rights in...
View ArticleOh, Well, Some Folks Don’t Like Oysters, Anyway….
As a kid growing up in the hills of North Mississippi, I was introduced to oysters by my maternal Grandmother in Biloxi, down on our Coast. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the slimy mollusks...
View ArticleHOW WILL WE COPE WHEN DAY ZERO ARRIVES IN A U.S. CITY?
While those of us here in the northeast have been wringing out soggy clothing, using umbrellas as an essential feature of our wardrobes, praying for sun, and genuinely wondering if the long hot days of...
View ArticleFlorida Gets A “Do-Over”
Florida v. Georgia, 585 U.S. ____ (2018), Slip Opinion No. 142, June 27, 2018On June 27, in a 5-4 decision the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS or the Court) rejected the Special Master’s conclusion that the...
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Look Before You Tweet, or How Not to Respond to Wild Fires
In a tweet released August 6, President Trump offered his analysis of how to combat the ongoing human and ecological tragedy of one of the worst fire seasons of record. The president then directed...
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