Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the standpoint of the public interest before it issues a permit. The
agency must determine, for example, whether in-stream fl ows will
be depleted and whether wildlife will be adversely affected when it
considers permitting a new water project involving suffi ciently large
withdrawals, says Lee P. Breckenridge, a professor at Northeastern
University School of Law in Boston and an expert on environmental
and natural resources, land use, and property law.
DISPUTES AND DECISIONS
As expected, disputes and subsequent decisions over water rights
vary between East and West—and among states that follow the
riparian or prior appropriation doctrine, or some derivative of one
or both. Architect and urban design sustainability expert Daniel
Williams comes down on the side that opposes prior appropriation.
“What we are doing right now is dangerously misinformed!” he says.
“For the last few hundred years they've had water rights, they're
holding everybody hostage.”
Adjudications in the West
In the West, the decisions over water disputes are known as adju-
dications and, also as one might expect, the methods of adjudica-
tion vary by state. The controversies are unending, and the results
of adjudications seldom satisfy both parties.
As mentioned earlier, in Arizona, for example, a group of
pecan farmers lost their livelihood when their trees died of thirst
after their aquifer level dropped by half from 32 feet to 16 feet. The
farmers blamed the depleted aquifer on an industrial neighbor that
drew down the aquifer. However, adjudication said their neighbor
was entitled to all the water it took.
Similarly, more than 400 homeowners in a Colorado subdivision
ended up without water when their wells were plugged after adjudi-
cation found that they had no rights to the water under their land.
Court Appeals in the East
Parties in states that take a riparian approach to water do not rely
on a stream adjudication that divides the right to use water among
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