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Punitives May Come To Those Who Wait

California Joins Jurisdictions Authorizing Punitive Damage Claims Against Polluters That Refuse To Timely Remediate Groundwater Contamination

By Bryan Barnhart*

LL.M., University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
J.D., Hastings College of Law

California’s courts routinely impose punitive damages awards against polluters that knowingly release hazardous substances which contaminate groundwater. But California has been slow to follow the nationwide trend favoring punitive damages awards against polluters that knowingly fail to remediate their past hazardous releases before those releases spread and cause greater harm.

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The Problem with Proportionality: The Effect of Proposition 218 on Retail Water Rates for Community Gardens in Los Angeles

by Laura Yraceburu ’20, UCLA School of Law

Yraceburu’s article won the 2020 California Water Law Writing Prize, awarded at the 2020 California Water Law Symposium. The California Water Law Writing Prize is co-sponsored by the California Water Law Symposium Board of Directors and University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.

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Sedimentation in California Reservoirs: A Long-Term Problem of Immediate Concern

Ryan J. Mahoney*

Ryan John Mahoney, JD ‘17, LLM ‘17, McGeorge School of Law, is staff counsel with the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. Mr. Mahoney’s article won the 2018 California Water Law Writing Prize, awarded at the 2018 California Water Law Symposium.  

INTRODUCTION

Sedimentation of reservoirs is a threat to California’s water supply, water quality, public safety, and environmental health.

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The Exclusivity of Inclusion: Involving Environmental Justice Communities in California’s Central Valley in the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

California was one of the first states to codify the principle of environmental justice ("EJ"), which state law defines as "the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, and incomes with respect to the development, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies." Historically, activism in the EJ field has focused on the siting of hazardous facilities such as landfills in poor communities of color, and on efforts to mitigate the associated pollution burden and health effects. However, procedural justice, which one researcher defines as the "fairness of the process by which goods are allocated and decisions made," is also an important component of EJ activism.
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Truly a Watershed Event: California’s Water Board Proposes Base Flows for the San Joaquin River Tributaries

In 1878, John Wesley Powell, the first director of the United States Geological Survey, published his Report on the Lands in the Arid Regions of the United States. In his Arid Lands Report, Powell foresaw the essential role that water would play in the development of the American west and the challenges faced in managing watersheds that included not only mainstem rivers but networks of tributaries that contributed water to mainstem rivers.
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Millview County Water District v. State Water Resources Control Board: Use it or lose it? Review of Forfeiture of Pre-1914 Appropriative Rights in California

Use it or lose it — that is the California way. Or is it? Many practicing California water law attorneys long assumed that forfeiture of a pre-1914 appropriative right could automatically occurred after five years of nonuse. However, a recent state appellate opinion puts this assumption in jeopardy.
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2015 California Water Law Symposium: A Recap of “Reasonable Use Law in California”

In the context of California's history-making drought — the worst in 1,200 years — experts at the 2015 California Water Law Symposium debated reasonable, beneficial, and wasteful uses of the state's dwindling and precious water resources. Celebrating its eleventh year, this symposium, entitled "Wasted Water: Reasonable Use Law in 21st Century California," was hosted by Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco on January 24 and saw participation from half a dozen law schools and experts from law firms, nonprofit organizations, government, and businesses across California.
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