2023 California Water Law Symposium | February 4 at University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law | Species & Water
  • Home
  • About
    • Symposium Chairs
    • Panel Chairs
    • Faculty Advisors
    • Directors
  • Program
    • Agenda
    • Panel Descriptions & MCLE
    • Panelists and Speakers
  • Parking and Transportation
  • Writing Prize
  • Past Symposia
  • Resources
BEYOND THE WATER WARS:

COLLABORATIVE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS FOR A SHARED RESOURCE

UC Davis | Saturday, January 26, 2013 (All day)

Agenda


8:00 am ​
Sign-in and Continental Breakfast

8:15 am
Student Session: Water Law 101
Jennifer Harder, UC Davis School of Law; University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
VIDEO

9:00 am ​
Welcome and Introduction
2013 Co-Chairs    
Richard Frank, UC Davis School of Law "Applying Today's Environmental Values to Yesterday's Water Projects"   
Harrison "Hap" Dunning, UC Davis School of Law

VIDEO

10:00 am
​
​Break

10:15 am
​
​SESSION 1A: 
What’s Really Killing The Salmon: What is the Role of the Law When Faced With Scientific Uncertainty and a Fractured Governmental System?
VIDEO

10:15 am
​SESSION 1B: Water Courts: Are They Right for California?
VIDEO

11:30 am
Break

11:45 am
​SESSION 2A: Stopping Ground Water Overdraft in California 
VIDEO

11:45 am
​SESSION 2B: Finding Common Ground in the Klamath Basin
VIDEO

1:00 pm
​Lunch
Introduction
Dean Kevin Johnson, UC Davis School of Law
Keynote Address                                                               
Congressman John Garamendi, U.S. House of Representatives
VIDEO

​2:00 pm​
Break

2:15 pm
​SESSION 3A: Water and Energy: Opportunities and Challenges
VIDEO

2:15 pm
​SESSION 3B: Re-“Addressing Nitrate in California’s Drinking Water”
VIDEO

3:30 pm
​Break

3:45 pm
​SESSION 4A: The All-American Canal: Opportunity for Cooperation in
​Transnational Water Apportionment

VIDEO

3:45 pm
​SESSION 4B: California Water Markets: Encouraging Cooperation, Protecting Third Parties
VIDEO

5:00 pm
​Conclusion
Reception

Panel Description

What’s Really Killing The Salmon: What is the Role of the Law When Faced With Scientific Uncertainty and a Fractured Governmental System?

Salmon degradation has played a major role in California water management. The California Department of Fish and Game estimates that in the 1930's there were likely 15,000 fish annually in the river. In the mid-20th century, as diversions from the river increased, the salmon population began to decline. In response, agencies took steps to improve habitat and increase the salmon population. This inevitably led to litigation, such as the issue of the Coordinated Operations of the CVP and SWP, on what methods were best suited for salmon restoration taking into account multiple interests and the best available science.

​Over the last two decades, scientists, regulated, and interested parties have been trying to better understand the causes of the salmon population decline. Besides studies of flow and its relationship to the health of the salmon population, there have been just as many studies implicating a variety of other stressors. These include predation, habitat degradation, water quality, climate change and the overall health of the Delta. Studies show that collectively these stressors have led to the degradation of the salmon population and that their only chance of survival is to address these stressors collectively. Unfortunately, since these biological studies take years to complete and rarely offer the kind of definitive answers parties seek, scientists and resource managers are not ready to conclusively state that even comprehensive restoration efforts will bring the
salmon back.  

What should the role of law, lawyers and judges be in addressing the salmon population’s decline and recovery? 

Moderator

Michael Lauffer
State Water Resources Control Board, Office of Chief Counsel

Panelists

Peter B. Moyle
UC Davis Department of Wildlife Fish and Conservation
Biology; Center for Watershed Sciences
Doug Obegi
Natural Resources Defense Council

CLE Materials

  • The Consolidated Salmonid Cases, US District Court for the Eastern District of California, 2011
  • Salmon, Steelhead, and Trout in California: Status of an Emblematic Fauna, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences
Dan J. O'Hanlon
Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard

Water Courts: Are they right for California?

Colorado's seven Water Courts are distributed across the state's seven major river basins. With the authority of a district court they have exclusive subject-matter jurisdiction over determination of water rights, use and administration of water, and all other matters related to water. Is this system right for California? Will specialized courts provide efficiency and predictability? Will they incentivize litigation?

Moderator

John Leshy
UC Hastings College of the Law

Panelists

Stephanie Hastings 
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP
Justice Gregory Hobbs
Colorado Supreme Court and Colorado Judicial
​Advisory Council
Justice Jack Komar
Santa Clara County Superior Court
Justice Ronald Robie
Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District

CLE Materials

  • Reviving the Public Ownership, Antispeculation, and Beneficial Use Moorings of Prior Appropriation Water Law, Justice Gregory Hobbs, Jr.
  • Colorado’s 1969 Adjudication and Administration Act: Settling In, Justice Gregory Hobbs, Jr. 

Stopping Ground Water Overdraft in California

Since the state was formed, groundwater consumption in California has gone almost entirely unregulated. While the law has created systems of apportionment through the California Constitution and the Correlative Rights Doctrine, comprehensive regulations against overdraft have remained inexistent. As a result, many water tables in the state have dropped to critical levels, and yet presently, the problem remains largely neglected. With California now deriving close to 40% of its annual water supply from groundwater, it has become more imperative than ever to focus our attention on preventing this unsustainable use of our most precious resource.This panel will focus on the current problems in groundwater overdrafting, as well as the methods available for curbing present practices.

Moderator

Art Baggett

Panelists

David Guy
Northern California Water Association
Celeste Cantú
Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority
Dr. Maurice Hall
The Nature Conservancy

Finding Common Ground in the Klamath Basin

The Klamath River Basin has seen decades of dispute among instream interests (tribal, fishing, and conservation) and offstream interests (farming, ranching, and hydropower generation). In 2001 drought conditions led to the shutdown of Klamath reclamation project operations, resulting in many ranches and fields going dry. In 2002 the Bureau of Reclamation reversed course and increased irrigation deliveries, contributing to a record fish die-off.  Coming on top of years of lawsuits, those events drove stakeholders to sit down and begin talking.

The results of nearly five years of negotiation were the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, proposing removal of four privately-owned hydroelectric dams on the mainstem Klamath River and reoperation of the upstream Klamath Project dams. Proponents claim the agreements will provide for both fish recovery and more reliable irrigation deliveries. Opponents criticize the agreements for reasons ranging from inadequate protections for fish and wildlife, to the lack of a basin-wide approach to water and species management, to alleged political interference in scientific reviews. With several notable exceptions, many stakeholders signed the agreements in 2010.
​
Nearly three years later, the agreements remain in a precarious position.  Authorizing legislation has stalled in Congress, and funding from the State of California remains dependent upon a water bond act that will not be on the ballot until 2014.  At the same time, the record return of 380,000 chinook salmon to the Klamath River in 2012 renewed questions about the benefits, costs, and risks of dam removal.  This panel will concentrate on both the successes of the stakeholder process and the lingering scientific, economic, and political barriers to finding a lasting
​peace in the basin.

Moderator

Holly Doremus
UC Berkeley School of Law

Panelists

Richard Roos-Collins
Water and Power Law Group PC
Paul Simmons
Somach Simmons & Dunn
Scott Williams
Berkey Williams LLP; UC Berkeley School of Law
Brian Morris
Siskiyou County

CLE Materials

  • Summary of Klamath Agreements
  • Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement
  • Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement
  • Photos and Maps of Klamath 
  • The Klamath Basin: A Restoration for the Ages, Viewers Guide, presented by NETA, funded by Water Education Foundation, 2012
  • Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement: A Convergence of Opportunity, 2008
  • Joint Statement Concerning Klamath Basin Restoration
    Agreement, 2008
  • Klamath River Basin: Background and Issues, CRS Report for Congress, June 2012
  • Order issued by an Administrative Law Judge in the Klamath Basin Water Rights Adjudication, April 2012

Water and Energy: Opportunities and Challenges

There is considerable focus on the energy needed to produce water in California. However, it is equally important that attention be paid to
​ the water that is needed to produce energy; growing demand for energy may stress limited water supplies in California.  Expanding oil shale development relies on water from the Colorado River Basin, while solar and wind generation provide energy without water until hydroelectric dams are used to stabilize supply. Does California's energy sector have a growing demand for water?  What legal challenges may this pose (e.g., will it lead to increased litigation)?  What opportunities may reduce the water intensity of energy?  Do any renewable sources demand water?

Moderator

Richard Roos-Collins
Water and Power Law Group PC

Panelists

Cynthia Truelove
California Public Utilities Commission
Jeffery Harris
Ellison, Schneider & Harris
Frances Spivy-Weber
State Water Resources Control Board
Lorraine White
GEI Consultants

Re-“Addressing Nitrate in California’s Drinking Water” 

Last March, the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences released a groundbreaking report to the California Legislature. “Addressing Nitrate in California’s Drinking Water” marked the completion of the first comprehensive scientific investigation of nitrate contamination in the Tulare Lake Basin area and confirmed that many Californians do not have reliable access to safe drinking water. The report defined the extent of contamination, suggested potential solutions, and outlined possible mechanisms for funding remedial measures. A panel of stakeholders will analyze what this report contributes to the conversation about the state of California’s groundwater and necessary steps we must take to secure clean, affordable drinking water for affected Californians.

Moderator

Robert D. Infelise
Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP

Panelists

Laurel Firestone
Community Water Center
Thomas Harter
UC Davis Department of Land, Air & Water Resources
Lori Okun
State Water Resources Control Board
Danny Merkley
California Farm Bureau Federation

CLE Materials

  • Addressing Nitrate in California's Drinking Water, The UC Davis Report

 The All-American Canal: Opportunity for Cooperation in Transnational Water Apportionment

Percolation along the All-American Canal resulted in inefficient water export to Southern California. Water from the Canal seeps into the Mexicali Valley Aquifer.  The Aquifer sustains wetlands and irrigates Mexican farmlands. When the U.S. proposed to line the All-American Canal in order to maximize the capture of transported water, concerns arose that Mexico's water needs would not be met. This created conflict between the U.S. and Mexico.
The All-American Canal has been lined. The Lining Project replaced 23 miles of earthen canal with concrete. The project has received awards and been recognized as a model for creating partnerships between local and state water agencies in the US. But what has the project meant for Mexico and US-Mexico relations?
This panel will discuss the past, present, and future benefits and consequences of the All-American Canal Lining Project and ways to achieve equitable water apportionment with Mexico.

Moderator

Paul Kibel
Golden Gate University School of Law

Panelists

Peter R. Reich
Whittier Law School
Tony Rossmann
Rossmann & Moore, LLP
Malissa McKeith
Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP
Bob Snow
U.S. Department of the Interior

CLE Materials

  • International Boundary and Water Commission: Minute No. 319, November 20, 2012
  • A Line Drawn in Water: Aquifers Beneath the Mexico-United States Border, Paul Stanton Kibel, January 2008
  • Water Law Doctrine and the Origins of the All-American Canal, Peter L. Reich, 2013
  • The All-American Canal Fact Sheet
  • Killing a Farming Economy: Why You Should Deman Alternatives to a New All American Canal
  • Panel Outline

California Water Markets: Encouraging Cooperation, Protecting Third Parties

Water markets increase reliability of water supplies and encourage cooperation between water rights holders. However, if not well designed they can also have major effects on third parties in the localities from which this water is diverted. Many counties in California have attempted to address these concerns by passing water export ordinances to restrict certain transfers of water, even as policies are in place at state and federal levels to encourage water markets. Other approaches compensate members of communities affected by large-scale water transfers or compensate water rights when restricting transfers. What is the most effective way to encourage, restrict, and manage these water markets? On what level should transfers of California's water be regulated

Moderator

Thadd Bettner
Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District

Panelists

Ellen Hanak
Public Policy Institute of California 
Peter Prows
Briscoe Ivester & Bazel LLP
Steve Hirsch
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

CLE Materials

  • California's Water Market, By the Numbers, Update 2012, Public Policy Institute of California

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Host Sponsor
  • UC Davis School of Law
Participant Schools
  • UC Berkeley School of Law
  • ​Golden Gate University
  • University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law
  • University of San Francisco School of Law
  • UC Hasting College of Law
Advertising Sponsor
  • State Bar of California, Environmental Law Section
  • American Bar Association
Keynote Sponsors
  • ​
Symposium Sponsors


Panel Sponsors






Contributing Sponsors




Picture
ABOUT
​PROGRAM
​REGISTRATION
WRITING PRIZE
PAST SYMPOSIA
​
RESOURCES
Copyright © 2022 California Water Law Symposium
  • Home
  • About
    • Symposium Chairs
    • Panel Chairs
    • Faculty Advisors
    • Directors
  • Program
    • Agenda
    • Panel Descriptions & MCLE
    • Panelists and Speakers
  • Parking and Transportation
  • Writing Prize
  • Past Symposia
  • Resources