Highway 82 Fire - Affected Zip Codes: 31513, 31566, 31553, 31523, and 31525- The “Highway 82” fire began in Brantley County, Georgia on April 20, 2026. Early investigation has determined the cause of this fire was...more
Welcome to Nossaman’s California Water Views – 2026 Outlook. Water is simple. Water issues are complex. To provide more clarity, we asked our attorneys who are committed to the water sector to identify the pivotal issues...more
A coalition of organizations sent a March 16th letter to Senator Lisa Murkowski, Chair, and Senator Merkley, Ranking Member, of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies requesting...more
While much attention has focused on the electricity demands of AI-driven data centers, a quieter crisis is emerging around water consumption. Modern hyperscale data centers can consume between one and five million gallons of...more
On February 9, 2026, Governor Ron DeSantis executed Executive Order 26-33, declaring a major state of emergency across all 67 counties in Florida. The Order responds to a powerful wintertime cold front that moved across...more
On February 25, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom launched the California Water Plan 2028, initiating a comprehensive, multi-year effort to modernize the State's water planning framework. Dubbed the “most ambitious water plan in...more
During Baker Botts' 39th Annual Environmental, Safety & Incident Response Seminar on January 28, 2026, Partner Stephanie Bergeron Perdue led the “TCEQ Update” session with Kelly Keel, Executive Director at the Texas...more
Governor Newsom signed in law California Senate Bill 598 (SB 598) on October 11, 2025, and will go into effect January 1, 2026. SB 598 will implement processes to streamline local agency water infrastructure projects. It will...more
Texas produces more than just oil and gas. Every day, millions of gallons of produced water are generated as a byproduct of oil and gas production. Once viewed strictly as a waste product, produced water is now at the center...more
Beginning January 1, 2025, the “Making Conservation a California Way of Life” regulatory framework requires urban retail water suppliers — not individual households or businesses — to adopt a series of “urban water use...more
Prior to the origination of the plans for the Panama Canal vessels of trade had few options of getting goods from Europe and Asia to N. America. One was to sail around the southern tip of South America (Cape Horn) adding...more
Stakeholders should stay informed as state and federal officials advance plans and policies for water conservation, water quality, and climate resilience in California....more
In 2024, after years of deliberation, California water officials adopted landmark rules that will guide future water use and conservation in the state. The “Making Conservation a California Way of Life” framework went into...more
On January 7, 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced that, following the completion of the Service’s 5-year status review (5-year Review) of the golden-cheeked warbler (Setophaga chrysopharia) (GCWA),...more
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will lead an investigation into the Tijuana-U.S. cross-border sewage crisis, measuring the potential health impacts on people who live and work near where millions of gallons of...more
A judge has temporarily blocked a plan by a California state water board to take over monitoring groundwater use in a portion of the crop-rich San Joaquin Valley, according to a copy of the decision obtained on July 16. Kings...more
Republican attorneys general from 20 U.S. states sued the Biden administration on Tuesday, seeking to block new reforms to the U.S. environmental review process for major projects such as transmission lines and wind and solar...more
Like much of the western and southwestern U.S., California has experienced drought conditions on and off for decades. Fortunately, the regulatory landscape is starting to catch up with water treatment technology, paving the...more
The Alberta government has identified, and is taking proactive steps to address, the looming threat of a severe drought this year. As negotiations unfold to secure water-sharing agreements, a cascade of legal and economic...more
State and federal officials move forward plans and policies for water conservation, conveyance, and climate resilience. The winter of 2022-23 brought historic levels of precipitation to California after years of deep...more
An ongoing, historic drought in California has compelled California state legislators to rethink the state’s long-standing treatment of water rights. While the recent heavy snowpack and wet spring and summer have alleviated...more
In a new study, researchers from NYU, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Defend Our Health have estimated the costs of plastic exposure on the U.S. healthcare system. In 2018, several common endocrine disruptors, a...more
Top water officials for the seven Colorado River Basin states met in December 2023 at the Colorado River Water Users Association conference to resume negotiating a new compromise for how they will share — and cut back on —...more
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 28.8 percent of the lower 48 states are in drought. At one point in 2022, almost half of the country was in a drought condition. The lack of precipitation plays havoc on the groundwater...more
Work on a $10 billion project that will funnel renewable energy across the West has come to a halt in southwestern Arizona, with Native American tribes saying the federal government has ignored concerns about effects that the...more