DBS&A Presenting on Tribal Groundwater Issues
The American Ground Water Trust (AGWT) States’ Rights and the Control of Groundwater conference will take place on July 17th and 18th, 2018, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This conference will focus on the legal issues surrounding the control of groundwater in the west, including insights to management and ownership of groundwater on tribal lands.
DBS&A’s Neil Blandford, P.G., Senior Vice President and Principal Hydrologist, will present an overview of tribal groundwater issues in the Little Colorado River Adjudication in Arizona. Affiliate Clear Creek Associates’ Principal Hydrogeologist Doug Bartlett, R.G., P.G., will present on groundwater management challenges in Arizona related to definitions of the legal category of water, called “subflow.” Also meet DBS&A Vice President and Senior Engineer, Gundar Peterson, P.E., and Hydrogeologists, Amy Ewing, P.G. and Paula Schuh, P.G. Click here to learn about DBS&A’s water rights expertise.
The AGWT conference will bring together attorneys, federal, tribal and state water resources managers, engineers, scientists, planners, and water end users (utilities, irrigators etc.) to discuss past and current cases, legal challenges, primacy and jurisdictional authority over groundwater management. Presentations will also include the scientific studies and groundwater modeling results that have informed decision-making.
For many states in the western U.S., primacy for administration of groundwater is held by the states. However, recent legal challenges have brought the extent of state control of groundwater into question. Chief amongst these are the Texas v New Mexico case before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Coachella v Agua Caliente case in California. In the case of Texas v New Mexico, one of the issues is groundwater use within the State of New Mexico between the point of delivery under the Rio Grande Compact at Elephant Butte and the Texas state line. In the Coachella v Agua Caliente case in California, the court has backed the Agua Caliente tribe’s claim that it holds a federally granted reserved right to groundwater beneath the tribe’s reservation. Two local water agencies, the Coachella Valley Water District and the Desert Water Agency, have argued unsuccessfully that the tribe has the same right to use groundwater under state law as other landowners. Recently in New Mexico, the U.S. Forest Service attempted to assert its authority to manage groundwater on its lands, contrary to New Mexico water law. This conference will explore the changing landscape of states’ rights and the administration of groundwater.
Click here for more information on the event. https://agwt.org/civicrm/event/info%3Fid%3D270%26reset%3D1