[VIDEO] The Price of an Aging Infrastructure on the Environment
The Water Values Podcast - How Can We Resolve Water Conflicts?
Water rights holders in Whatcom County and northern Skagit County will be affected by a court adjudication case filed in May 2024 by the Washington State Department of Ecology ("Ecology"). Ecology filed this general water...more
Despite California’s record high levels of precipitation in 2023, water scarcity remains a pressing issue. Governments have turned to using the power of eminent domain to acquire investor-owned utilities in an effort to...more
The Texas Supreme Court (“TXSC”) recently confirmed what many already know: the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”) has only administrative authority related to water rights in Texas. This means that water...more
Rosamond Community Services District (“RCSD”) recently approved the adoption of a resolution of necessity and filed a case to acquire water rights from agricultural land by eminent domain. After the adoption of the Resolution...more
The Supreme Court of Virginia put on a little tutorial last week on the subject of “necessary parties” to a lawsuit. It’s a smart lesson and a useful reminder that when we try a case, we have to be careful to remember to...more
As water becomes scarcer in California, public agencies are looking for new sources and opportunities to provide water to their communities. When the government identifies those water sources but confronts unwilling sellers,...more
What Real Estate Do You Own? Normally, property owners know what land they own. They have a deed with a legal description and a survey which clearly shows their property line....more
The Court of Appeals of North Carolina (“Court”) addressed in an October 16th opinion whether Lewis Edward Dye, Jr (“Defendant”), through his chain of title in a small tract of land on Everett’s Lake (the “Lake”) also has the...more
On August 9, 2018, the Arizona Supreme Court issued a decision with potentially important implications for future residential and commercial development in Arizona. In Silver v. Pueblo Del Sol Water Company, a divided court...more
The South Carolina Supreme Court (“Court”) addressed in a May 30th opinion a judicial challenge to the South Carolina Surface Water Withdrawal, Permitting, Use, and Reporting Act (“Act”). See Jowers v. South Carolina Dept. of...more
• In Northern California Water Association et al. v. State Water Resources Control Board et al., the California Third District Court of Appeal rejected challenges to a new annual fee on water right permit and license holders...more
Environmental and Policy Focus - U.S. Supreme Court allows pre-permit challenges to approved jurisdictional determinations - Allen Matkins - May 31 - In a major new legal development for the Clean Water Act's...more
AB 1390 expedites comprehensive groundwater adjudications to determine rights to extract groundwater in a basin. While AB 1390, a companion bill to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014, streamlines several...more
Under CEQA, a “trustee agency” is a “state agency having jurisdiction by law over natural resources affected by a project which are held in trust for the people of the State of California” and “[t]he California Department of...more