Browsing by Subject "Water rights"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Open Access
A Legal and Economic Analysis of the Tri-State Water Wars
(2014-04-25) McCord, John Miller Jr.
Water is essential for all human life and, thus, serves as the keystone of any prosperous nation. One can look back thousands of years into the known history of human civilizations and see the evolution (and revolution) of how mankind has come to govern its water. Taking a look around the world, it's easy to see the devastating impacts of inadequate water supply on both human life and the environment, as a whole, but it is more difficult to see the extent to which a water-rich society may take this vital resource, and the way-of-life it has enabled, for granted. The Tri-State Water Wars, as it has come to be known, refers to the collective, on-going series of legal disputes between Georgia, Alabama, and Florida over rights to the shared water resources of the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) and Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basins. In 2013, the State of Florida filed a lawsuit against the State of Georgia in the Supreme Court of the United States in regard to the waters of the ACF River Basin. This paper will explore some of the most politically, economically, and legally compelling issues embedded in the dispute. All three states have unique claims to the shared waters of the ACF Basin, from Metro Atlanta growing population and demand, to south Georgia’s agricultural irrigation, to Alabama’s nuclear power plant, to Florida’s oysters and endangered species. The Supreme Court will likely decide before the end of the year whether or not they will take the case. If they do take the case, the trial will likely drag out for multiple years; thus, any immediate resolution sought by Florida may be delayed. Regardless of the outcome, each stakeholder in the ongoing Tri-State Water Wars litigation must determine how it will accommodate future demand increases and how future supplies may play a role in meeting this demand.
Open Access
Agua es vida // Water is Life
(2023-04-20) Brennan Agarwal, Chaya
Open Access
Mapping Rio Grande Water Rights: A Decision Support Tool for Ecosystem Restoration
(2018-04-27) Murray, Megan
The Nature Conservancy of Texas (TNC-Texas) and TNC (TNC-Global) are pursing efforts to identify and acquire water rights that could be dedicated or in other ways managed for the benefit and protection of environmental flows. Due to recent alliances and funding streams, TNC is particularly interested in water rights in the Lower Pecos and Upper Rio Grande watersheds, sub-watersheds of the Rio Grande in Far West Texas. Before any transactions are made, The Nature Conservancy must determine which water rights they are interested in acquiring. TNC has been working on a water rights mapping platform that allows them to assess how much water is left in the river after the initial diversion, where the return flows go, and if purchased water will reach TNC’s designated priority streams. However, this analysis is limited when water rights are not in the correct location. Thus, this project remedied these inaccuracies in the Lower Pecos and Upper Rio Grande by moving the water right to the correct location. The resulting products are a static map and web application version that contain the water rights along with other important features like watershed boundaries, water monitoring stations, priority stream segments, and endangered species’ ranges. With water rights in the correct location, it is possible to characterize how water is used in the region and by whom. This report highlights the major water users in each watershed and explains their operations in detail. In addition to who, what, and where of water use, the report emphasizes some of the key legal and third-party considerations TNC should evaluate. The The Nature Conservancy intends to use the map and supporting documentation as a decision support tool for their ecosystem restoration projects.
Open Access
Minimization of Third-Party Injury in Multi-Party Water Right Transfers in Colorado
(2017-04-28) Hamilton, Andrew L
In the western United States, prior appropriation is the dominant form of water rights. In times of scarcity, the most senior water rights are given priority. Water right transfers can increase economic eﬃciency by moving water toward higher value uses, but the parties involved must prove that transfers do not reduce water availability for third-party users. In this study, prior appropriation and water right transfers were studied using the Upper Gunnison River Basin in Colorado as a test case. Streams and diversion structures were combined into a simplified network object in the R language. A ﬂow allocation model was then developed to solve for the set of withdrawals and streamﬂows consistent with mass balance constraints and prior appropriation. The ﬁrst objective of this work was to explore the drivers on water availability under prior appropriation. Speciﬁcally considered were the eﬀects of spatial and temporal hydrologic variability, as well as the set of upstream and downstream priorities, on water availability for a given water right holder. Additionally, the eﬀects of these drivers on water right transfers and third-party injuries were explored. Next, a number of case studies were developed which showcase strategies for using carefully constructed water right transfers for various ends. Multi-party overlapping water right transfers were considered as a solution to the problem of third-party injury. Multi-party water right transfers were also suggested as a means to reduce transaction costs in water right transfers. Symmetric, bilateral water right transfers were considered as a way of transferring hydrologic risk. Lastly, downstream water right transfers were suggested as a strategy for increasing instream ﬂows in vulnerable reaches. In addition to these heuristic case studies, a web-based tool was developed which allows users to explore water rights within the Upper Gunnison River Basin and test the eﬀects of multi-party transfers on third-parties and instream ﬂows. I hope that this tool will be useful for water managers, regulators, and educators who would like to develop a better understanding of prior appropriation rules and the eﬀects of water right transfers.