Western Waters in the News
Browse our News page for recent news, articles, speeches and commentary concerning western water adjudication. All documents are in PDF format and require free Adobe Reader for viewing. Click the Adobe icon for the latest free downloadable version. 
FREE WEBCAST: Fundamentals of Water Law: Water Law 101
This free webcast on the fundamentals of water law is available for viewing. It is free to view the webcast, but registration is required.
Alf W. Brandt Appointed Executive Director of Dividing the Waters Program at The National Judicial College
The National Judicial College (NJC) is pleased to announce that Alf W. Brandt of Davis, Calif., was recently appointed executive director of the Dividing the Waters program at The National Judicial College. Dividing the Waters is a collaboration of a network of judges, special masters and referees who preside over water adjudications and other complex water litigation.
According to William F. Dressel, president of the College, “Mr. Brandt’s background in water resource law and policy development will help position DTW as a leading resource on water law issues.”
Brandt’s experience includes service as director at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (the largest water agency in the world), and as water attorney with the U.S. Department of the Interior. He previously co-chaired the American Bar Association’s annual Water Law Conference, testified in Congress on climate change and water, and has spoken at numerous water law and policy conferences in California and across the nation. He led development of California’s 2009 Delta/Water Legislation package and its 2007 flood protection legislative package. Both achieved landmark change in addressing key water issues facing the legislature. Brandt is also a senior water expert for the California State Assembly where he will continue to serve full-time. Brandt will serve Dividing the Waters on non-State time.
“This is an opportunity of a lifetime, to serve with such inspirational leaders of the western water law community who share my passion for water law and making water management more effective, for the good of the people and the environment of the United States,” Brandt noted.
In explaining his vision for Dividing the Waters, Brandt emphasized the importance of building on the growing connection among water supply, water quality and the environment.
“We used to divide water policy between east and west, which have different kinds of water law. But, today, we see a growing concern across all of our traditional divisions in the water world. Concerns about quality, quantity and the environment have converged, here and all around the world. Dividing the Waters enjoys a unique position to help judges from all over the United States with all kinds of experience – mostly not in water – to understand and adjudicate the growing number of conflicts over water. I’m excited to be able to help Dividing the Waters build on its history of success,” he continued.
The central purpose of the Dividing the Waters project is to improve the management and outcome of general stream adjudications and other complex water-related litigation affecting people and the environment. State trial judges are most directly served by this project although state appellate judges, federal trial and appellate judges, and U.S. Supreme Court special masters are also involved in project activities. Dividing the Waters is a program of The National Judicial College.
How to Take Climate Change into Account
"This article, "How to Take Climate Change into Account," provides invaluable insights for judges on how to navigate through the relatively new field of climate change litigation. Along the way, the authors make important suggestions on how to address uncertainty and variability in all types of environmental cases."
Judge (ret.) John E. Thorson
Dividing the Waters Co-Convener
Chair and Co-Chair Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee (MRRIC)
“As climate change profoundly stresses our water supplies, we need legal, water and climate scholars to synthesize their disciplines and offer guidance to judges. This article – written with the central participation of scholars from across the University of Arizona– provides a roadmap for judges as they struggle to incorporate the best available science on climate change into decisions in cases involving water rights and environmental law. It's arrived just in time.
Robert Glennon is the Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Arizona. He is also the author of Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It (2009) and Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters (2002).
Citizen's Guide to Colorado Water Law Order Form
Gregory Hobbs, Colorado Supreme Court Justice and a convenor of Dividing the Waters, has authored a brand new citizen's guide to Colorado water. Take this opportunity to review a sample of this document. An order form is included if you would like a copy of the entire document mailed to you.
Water Allocation in the Upper Klamath Basin
This document discusses the assessment of natural resource, economic, social and institutional issues of water allocation in the Upper Klamath Basin.
Two Decades of Water Law and Policy Reform
In this paper, John Thorson, original convenor of Dividing the Waters, provides a history of general stream adjudications and discusses criticisms and proposed reforms of the adjudication process. He also makes his own recommendations for improvement.
Colorado Water Law: An Historical Overview
The following document is a historical overview of Colorado water law, written by Justice Gregory J. Hobbs, Jr.
Colorado's 1969 Adjudication and Administration Act
The following document is an article that was featured in the University of Denver's Water Law Review (1999) , written by Justice Gregory J. Hobbs, Jr., discussing Colorado's 1969 adjudication and administration act.
State Water Politics Versus An Independent Judiciary
A great privilege of being a state supreme court justice is the opportunity to author an important water opinion. It could also be one’s last important opinion. Especially if the case involves a close, split decision of your court and you are up for reelection in a contested race.
Dividing the Waters: the California Experience
Remarks by Brian Gray, Professor, Hastings School of Law, about the history of California water law at the invitation of Dividing the Waters.
Science for Judges Workshop
On April 29-30, 2003 Dividing the Waters held a workshop entitled "Science for Judges". It was designed to provide some basic science information about hydrology and its role in decision-making about the adjudication of water rights.
Role of Climate in Shaping Wester Water Institutions
Dividing the Waters co-convenor and Colorado Supreme Court Justice Greg Hobbs recently gave the following address a conference at the University of Colorado Natural Resources Law Center. His topic was "THE ROLE OF CLIMATE IN SHAPING WESTERN WATER INSTITUTIONS."
Trilogy of Colorado Supreme Court water opinions
Park County Sportsmen's Ranch, Empire Lodge and Consolidated make up a trilogy dealing with changes of water rights, out-of-priority diversions authorized through decreed augmentation plans, and aquifer recharge and storage.
Farmers Reservoir and Irrigation Co.
The Water Court adjudicated a change of water rights to Consolidated Mutual Water Company for water historically utilized under the LSE Ditch. Opposers took no appeal from the judgment and decree. Opposers later filed a petition to invoke the retained jurisdiction provision of the judgment and decree, seeking a Water Court order cutting back Consolidated Mutual's consumptive use in order to offset Golden's alleged consumptive use overdraft. The alleged overdraft was due to Golden's 1960s change decrees not being volumetrically limited.
Rights to the Gila River System
On February 20, 2002, Judge Ballinger issued a ruling on the objections to former Special Master Thorson's reports dated June 30, 2000, and December 28, 2000. Both reports addressed the preclusive effect that certain prior judicial decrees and judgments and agreements may have on water claims being asserted by the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) and the United States on behalf of the reservation.
South Platte River wells case
On April 30, 2003, the Colorado Supreme Court announced its decision in the "South Platte River wells case," Simpson v. Bijou Irrigation District, No. 02SA377. The Court ruled that the State Engineer lacked legislative authority for proposed rules that allowed him to approve replacement water plans for out-of-priority well depletions that injure senior surface rights.
Keynote: St. George, Indian Water Rights Settlement Conference
The following speech was given by Susan Cottingham, Program Director, Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission for the State of Montana on October 1, 2001 at an Indian Water Rights Settlement Conference. The Native American Rights Fund and the Western States Water Council sponsored the conference.
Ms. Cottingham reflects upon the events of September 11, 2001 and the relevance of reconciliation and peace to Indian water rights conflicts throughout the West, arguing that rededicating and refocusing the effort to achieve settlements is more difficult but also more important than ever.
Priority: The Most Misunderstood Stick in the Bundle
In Priority: The Most Misunderstood Stick in the Bundle, by Gregory J. Hobbs, Jr., Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Colorado, Justice Hobbs discusses the continuing role of prior appropriation in western water law and policy. He posits that priority is the most misunderstood and important stick in the bundle of a water right and that the accelerating growth of the West makes fair and efficient administration of water rights, both state-created and federal, the single most deserving feature of twenty-first century water policy. Here is copy of the article, reprinted with permission, from Environmental Law, published quarterly by the students of Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College, 32 Envtl. L. 37 (2002), Issue 1.