 Water for Wildlife Depends on Legal Opportunities
Western drought desiccates crops and threatens aquatic life. Some say water allocations favor fish over farmers - yet many prefer to share, rather than spar about, water rights. A new report from Water in the West shows states’ laws can help. “Barriers to water markets in the West have come to the forefront of public discussion due to the extent of drought in western states,” said Water in the West Executive Director Leon Szeptycki. “Our work focused specifically on one aspect of this problem – legal barriers to voluntary transfers of water rights for environmental purposes. Our goal was to survey state laws and see if we could identify existing tools that were already working well.” More ...
 Assessing CA Groundwater Management One Year After Landmark Legislation
One year ago, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 into law. Commonly referred to as SGMA, the legislation created a statewide framework for sustainable groundwater management – and, potentially, regulation of groundwater pumping – for the first time in California’s history. Severe drought and reliance on pumping underground aquifers have left groundwater supplies in worse shape than when the law was passed, the authors write, adding that limits on pumping and new wells are likely needed to meet the law's objectives. More ...
 Can Environmental Law Save Us From Disasters?
Natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods and wildfires are often thought of as “Acts of God.” However, the disaster management community increasingly recognizes that few disasters are purely “natural” in origin. For instance, land-use decisions that allow people to build (and rebuild) homes in floodplains contribute to flood damage; and greenhouse gas emissions contribute to extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change. In light of this, can the area of disaster management learn from the field of environmental law, which has a long history of designing tools to help prevent and mitigate harms from man-made disasters such as toxic contamination and pollution? Experts and disaster risk practitioners from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Africa considered the question at a Stanford Law School workshop earlier this year. More …
|
