Chapter 7: Water
I. Introduction
For a glossary of water law terms, you
can visit this site.
As a further reference source, you may wish to visit this site
of the Texas Environmental Law Center.
For useful links to a variety of web
sites concerning national and international water issues, you may want
to visit the University of Denver's Natural Resources Weblinks by clicking
here.
II. Understanding the Water Resource
A. The World's Water
For a wealth of information on the world's
fresh water resources, including data and additional links, you may
want to visit this site of
the Pacific Institute, which is headed by Peter Gleick, the author of
the excerpt on pages 704-05. For world water news, visit the International
Water Law project of the Pacific Institute.
The following web pages contain additional
information and diagrams illustrating the hydrocycle:
http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/earth/hydrocycle/hydro3.html
http://www.epa.gov/seahome/groundwater/src/cycle.htm#cycle
http://www.ec.gc.ca/water/en/nature/prop/e_cycle.htm
For a variety of diagrams and charts, some
of which are interactive, depicting the hydrocycle and its components,
you may also want to visit this site
at the University of Illinois.
The full text of the United Nation's World
Water Development Report excerpted at page 706, as well as a variety
of other documents relating to water, is available at UNESCO's
World Water Assessment Programme.
The following diagram
is a nice illustration of the nature of the world's water supply. This
table
provides the same information in a different format.
B. The United States' Water
Further information about the water resources of the United States is compiled
by USGS here. EPA also has a web site
dedicated to water.
If you'd like to view an interactive map depicting current water resource
conditions anywhere in the United States, comparing current flows to average
historical flows, click here.
Click here for links
to local USGS water resource offices.
C. Water Uses and Water Users
Click here for the USGS
site on water use in the United States. It contains links to estimated water
use summaries for 1990
and 1995, maps
of water use, and a water use fact
sheet among other things.
Click here for the EPA
website on water use in the United States. For water use maps on the EPA web
site, click here.
For images of some common irrigation methods (e.g. flood, center pivot, drip),
click here. This site
gives written explanations of the various irrigation methods.
D. Valuing Water
E. Dams
For a wealth of information about dams, including dam safety environmental
impacts and dam decommissioning, visit the site of the United
States Society on Dams. The site also contains a list of dams by height,
megawatt and storage capacity, which is available here.
Click here for a website
which discusses both the good and bad aspects of large dams in the Western United
States.
Problem Exercise: Evaluating The Proposal to Drain Lake Powell
If you'd like to access the web site of The Glen Canyon Institute, it is available
here. The web site for Friends of Lake
Powell is available here.
III. The Law of Water Allocation
A. Riparian Rights
B. Eastern Permit systems
C. Prior Appropriation
1. Overview
2. Beneficial Use
Salton Sea Authority web site.
3. Permit Systems and The Public Interest Requirement
4. Instream Flow Appropriations
Problem Exercise: Forming a Water Trust
The web site for the Oregon Water Trust may be accessed here.
5. Los Angeles, Water, and The Public Trust Doctrine
For pictures and information about the Los Angeles river basin and a timeline
of Los Angeles' water history, click here.
For a website that contains several nice photographs of Owens Valley and the
Los Angeles aqueduct, as well information on the history of the aqueduct, you
may want to click here.
Click here for a website with information
about Mono Lake. For websites containing a wealth of information and documents
about Mono Lake, including a chronology of Mono Lake litigation and legislation,
click here
and here.
D. The Law of Groundwater
For educational sites about the basics of groundwater, click here,
here or here.
The following diagram
depicts how groundwater discharge and recharge work.
1. The Groundwater Resource
2. Legal Regimes for Allocating Groundwater
Problem Exercise: Allocating A Simple Groundwater Aquifer
IV. Water Federalism
A. Who owns the Water?
B. Indian and Federal Reserved Water Rights
Page 815, note 2: Here is a copy of a
National Forests map as mentioned in the question.
Problem Exercise: Reserved Water Rights for Wilderness in
Idaho
C. Intersecting Federal Statutes
1. The Clean Water Act and Wetlands
Click here for
an online version of the Clean Water Act.
Case Study: The Navigation Servitude
2. The Endangered Species Act
Click here for
an online version of the Endangered Species Act.
D. Allocating Water Between the States
1. Judicial Allocation
2. Allocation by Compact
If you'd like to review a database of domestic water compacts, which can be
sorted by states, river basin, date, or principal focus, you may click here.
3. Congressional Allocation
Case Study: The Law of the Colorado River
Click here
for a map of Upper and Lower Basins and Colorado River watershed.
V. International Water Law
For a table and maps of international river basins, including the basin name,
total area of basin (sq. km), list of countries associated with basin, area
of each country within basin (sq. km) and percent area of each country within
basin, click here.
Here are river basin maps of Mekong
River Basin, Nile
River Basin, Rhine
River Basin, and the Amazon
River Basin.
For a list of the world's major rivers with data on each river, click here.
A. Customary Law of Transboundary Watercourses
International Water Law Project
- This is a site with numerous links and information on the subject of international
water law.
Transboundary Fresh Water
Dispute Database - A good site with databases on international fresh water
agreements, treaties and historical events.
B. The 1977 Convention on Non-Navigational Uses of International
Watercourses
Click here for
the text of the convention.
Problem Exercise: Allocating the Waters of the Nile River
For two maps of the Nile River basin, click here.
Further Reading and Relevant Websites
Glossary of water terms -
http://ag.arizona.edu/AZWATER/reference/glossary/noframe.html
The Nature of Water - http://www.ec.gc.ca/water/en/nature/e_nature.htm
List of useful links - http://www.internationalwaterlaw.org/Useful-Sites.htm
The International Water Law page - http://www.thewaterpage.com/int_water_law.htm
The World Water Council - http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/
The World's Water - http://www.worldwater.org/
Water World - http://ww.pennnet.com/home.cfm
U.S. Water News - http://www.uswaternews.com/homepage.html
Water Environment Federation - http://www.wef.org/
International Water Academy - http://www.thewateracademy.org
