1 / 10

The Free Market, Environmental Stewardship, and Rule of Law

The Free Market, Environmental Stewardship, and Rule of Law. Lecture 2 of 3:Policy on Rainwater Harvesting and River Basin Management. Reading Material for Lecture 2.

matteo
Download Presentation

The Free Market, Environmental Stewardship, and Rule of Law

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Free Market, Environmental Stewardship, and Rule of Law Lecture 2 of 3:Policy on Rainwater Harvesting and River Basin Management

  2. Reading Material for Lecture 2 • Stephen Bretsen, Rainwater Harvesting Under Colorado’s Prior Appropriation Doctrine: Property Rights and Takings”, Fordham Environmental Law Review, Vol. XXII, 2011 • James L. Huffman, “Comprehensive River Basin Management: The Limits of Collaborative, Stakeholder-Based, Water Governance”, Comprehensive River Basin Management, Winter, 2009.

  3. Policy Issues: Case Studies on Rainwater Harvesting and River Basin Management • Allocation of freshwater resources in U.S. • Transboundary management issues • Jurisdictional challenges • Role of property rights and takings

  4. Case #1 What is “rainwater harvesting”? “capturing rain on a small scale before it becomes runoff” p. 159 Bretsen: “it utilizes a natural resource that would otherwise be wasted”- do you agree with this statement?

  5. Where and Why Does Rainwater Harvesting Occur? • Capturing rainwater for urban drinking water or watering gardens • In rural areas, may provide water for livestock and crops • Some countries have heavier use of this method (China, Sri Lanka, Brazil, India) and laws governing rainwater harvest and in some cases, it is to protect public health from contaminants

  6. Example of municipal policy on rainwater harvesting in U.S.: Seattle • The city of Seattle and King County partner on rainwater harvesting policies to regulate it and specify procedures • Washington State Dept. of Ecology allows the city to issue water right permits for property owners to harvest rainwater • The city offers a StormwaterFacility Credit Program to give people incentives to engage in this practice Photo: Seattle P-I 7-18-2011

  7. Policy in Colorado • Until 2009, rainwater harvesting was defined as improperly taking water out of the watershed-Prior appropriation doctrine. • Law SB 09-080 changed to allow a rooftop precipitation collection system; HB 09-1129 allowed pilot projects for larger collection systems For discussion: Who owns the rain? Who has rights to ground water?

  8. Issues for discussion raised in the Bretsen article • Do prior (“senior”) water rights owners have “taking” claims against the Colorado government? • Do they have the right to be compensated? • Will the scope of rainwater harvesting inevitably grow with development? With drought? • What does the author mean by “usufructuary rights (p. 182)? What is the property right of water use exactly? • In what way were the bills designed to attempt to avoid a “takings” battle? For discussion: why was it surprising to some people in Colorado that people might ‘own” the water that comes out of the sky?

  9. Case #2: What is a river basin? The land area drained by a river and its tributaries Example of Suwannee River Basin from USGS

  10. What is the best scale for managing water resources in a river basin? • P. 121 Huffman: states vs. federal authorities on water allocation policy • What special characteristics does water have that makes it challenging for resource policy-makers? • Should management of water in river basins be comprehensive and integrated?

More Related