Environmental Law

The new edition adds dozens of recent decisions and key statutory changes. Virtually every principal case in the leading casebooks is cited or discussed, making this book an excellent aid for students in any water law course. The revised edition deals with changes in evolving areas like groundwater-surface water conflicts, public recreational uses, instream flow protection, federal water development, takings claims, and water access and equity.

Intended for a general audience, Water Law: Concepts & Insights provides both a general overview of basic water law doctrines and an exploration of how water law—the law and policies governing allocation of water—fit into broader ecological and environmental law issues. The book provides an overview of important hydrological principles before discussing the two state-law systems governing use of surface water in the United States and the five doctrines governing use of groundwater. It then explores the federal government's interests in the fresh waters of the United States, ranging from protection of navigability to federal water projects to federal water rights. Putting the law governing water use into a broader context, Water Law: Concepts & Insights then explores the intersections of state water law with energy policy and production, water quality protections, endangered species protections, and broader watershed management. It ends by returning to the concept of water rights as protected private property rights and the complexities of constitutional "takings" litigation when environmental protections interfere with those rights.

While state law almost exclusively governs the allocation of surface waters in the United States, there are also reserved rights, an important class of water rights created by federal law. Written by practitioners in private practice, government, and academia, each with extensive experience in the area, Water Rights and Environmental Regulation: A Lawyer's Guide begins by looking at the rights to use water based on both state and federal law, as well as the issues involved in waters that cross state boundaries and in the shared control of water between the U.S. and Mexico and Canada. Further exploring the extent of federal environmental law impacts on water rights, the book discusses the federal agencies with major water use impacts, including the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other agencies whose actions, particularly projects they operate or lands that they manage and regulate, have a considerable impact on state law water rights and the execution of water projects.Central to any discussion of the federal impact on water rights are the major environmental laws. Individual chapters cover these landmark environmental statutes: the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Clean Water Act, the Wilderness Act designations and the wild and scenic rivers designations, and the National Environmental Policy Act. Finally, the book concludes by considering cases where water rights have been taken by governmental action without compensation.