Water Law

Santa Barbara County Water Supply Vanishing Due to Drought

    Santa Barbara County Water Supply Vanishing Due to Drought The reservoir serving much of Santa Barbara County reached a record low this summer and could continue to disappear with a dry winter. The 3,000 acre reservoir, Lake Cachuma (see above photos in “before” and “after” shots), holds Santa Barbara County’s drinking water and reached […]

California: Water Is For Fish Not Farmers

California: Water Is For Fish Not Farmers State regulators are moving to leave more water in two of the biggest rivers in California in an effort to preserve the native ecosystem of the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. While California farmers’ water allocations have been reduced, San Francisco water officials have […]

California Rep. Asks FERC to Remove Klamath Dam

Rep. Huffman of California Asks FERC to Approve Klamath Dam Removal On October 12th, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., Ranking Member on the Water Power, and Oceans Subcommitte on the House Committee on Natural Resources, sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”), urging FERC to approve applications which would allow the transfer of […]

Bay-Delta Conservation Plan Invalidated: Delta Management in Flux

Bay-Delta Conservation Plan Invalidated: Delta Management in Flux On June 24, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael P. Kenny invalidated the entirety of the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan because several central provisions were too vague. The decision has wide-reaching effects on the management of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which is both a sensitive ecosystem and an important […]

‘Water windfall’ beneath California’s Central Valley

‘Water windfall’ beneath California’s Central Valley A study led by Stanford scientists Robert Jackson and Mary Kang found that California’s Central Valley has three times more groundwater than previously estimated.  Previous estimates of California’s groundwater supply were based on decades-old data and only extended to a maximum depth of 1,000 feet.   Due to technological restraints, […]

Alert: New Regulations and Permit Requirements for Wetlands and Waters of the State

State Water Resources Control Board: New Regulations and Permit Requirements for Wetlands and Waters of the State On June 17, 2016, the State Water Resources Control Board (“State Water Board”) proposed a regulatory and permitting framework for wetlands not otherwise covered by the federal Clean Water Act. The State Water Board had previously recognized that […]

Supreme Court: Jurisdictional Determinations are Subject to Immediate Judicial Review

High Court Holds That Jurisdictional Determinations are Subject to Immediate Judicial Review On May 31, 2016, the United States Supreme Court issued its highly-anticipated ruling in United States Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., Inc., holding that the Army Corps of Engineers’ jurisdictional determinations (“JD”) are final agency actions subject to immediate judicial review. […]

Kennedy Skeptical Of Waters Of U.S. Rule Constitutionality

Kennedy Skeptical Of Waters Of U.S. Rule Constitutionality Earlier this week, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy called the Clean Water Act “arguably unconstitutionally vague.” This was a welcome hint on the future of the rule for landowners, project proponents and other critics of U.S. EPA’s new Waters of the U.S. Rule, which defines the […]

The Army Corps of Engineers Argues Jurisdictional Determinations Not Subject to Judicial Review

The Army Corps of Engineers Argues Jurisdictional Determinations Not Subject to Judicial Review In the days before oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the ability of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“ACOE”) to claim jurisdiction over bodies of water, the ACOE emphasized the inability for its jurisdictional determinations to be challenged. The […]

Sierra Club Requests to Intervene in Clean Water Act Challenge

Sierra Club Requests to Intervene in Clean Water Act Challenge The Sierra Club recently filed a motion to intervene in a court challenge regarding the new Waters of the United States rule (WOTUS).   In short, the rule seeks to redefine which waters receive federal protection under the Clean Water Act. The United States Environmental […]

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