2020 California Water Law Symposium “Water & Federalism: Shifts in State/Federal Roles & Relations”

2020 California Water Law Symposium “Water & Federalism: Shifts…

February 2, 2020March 29, 2020
by Bacilio Mendez II

The California Water Law Symposium is a collaborative, student-run event that brings together leading minds in water law to discuss California’s critical water issues. Panels featured professionals from all aspects of water law, focusing on the impacts of, and relationship between, state and federal regulation of drinking water, dam removals, tribal relations surrounding dams, ecosystem-based management, wetlands, and endangered species in California.

The Golden Gate University School of Law took the lead in hosting this year’s event. Participant schools included: USF School of Law; UC Hastings College of the Law; UC Berkeley School of Law; UC Davis School of Law; Stanford University Law School; and University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.

Mere words and a few pictures could not possibly capture the enormity of such an event, but, hopefully, those that follow will offer a glimpse into what you may have missed.

Our team of tireless volunteers was composed of staff writers, editors, and board members of the GGU Environmental Law Journal and students from all participant law schools.

Here’s a peek at the Program and Agenda for the #CAWLS2020. Go here for information on Past Symposia.

The keynote speaker, Clifford T. Lee, Deputy Attorney General of the California Department of Justice (ret.), gave a rousing presentation, to a full house, titled “Federalism & Water under the Trump Administration–Has the Long Peace Come to an End?”.

From December 1979 to December 2019, Clifford T. Lee was a deputy attorney general with the Natural Resources Law Section of the California Department of Justice. Prior to employment with the California Department of Justice, Mr. Lee was a staff attorney with the Governor’s Commission to Review California Water Rights Law. As a deputy attorney general, Mr. Lee represented the State Water Resources Control Board, the Department of Water Resources, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Air Resources Board, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and other state agencies in litigation in federal and state court. Mr. Lee received his J.D. from King Hall School of Law, University of California, Davis in 1976. He has been a member of the adjunct faculty at the Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, California. In 2007, Mr. Lee was a recipient of the California Lawyer Attorney of the Year award in the field of environmental law.

2020 California Water Law Writing Prize Award Winner Laura Yraceburu Dall (UCLA School of Law, ‘20).

Panel I: Safe Drinking Water for All: What Legal Requirements Apply and What Needs to be Done to Provide All Communities with Access to Affordable Drinking Water?
Organized by UC Hastings College of the Law

California drinking water regulation goes above and beyond federal requirements. California enacted the Affordable Safe Drinking Water Act and SB 200 to ensure that every community has access to safe drinking water. Similarly, national compliance initiatives that partner state and federal agencies help combat some of California’s most pervasive drinking water issues, such as water contamination, but there are still communities without safe drinking water. This panel will address the barriers many underserved communities face and outline forward-looking solutions. Panelists will discuss case studies from the San Joaquin Valley to see where existing regulatory systems fall short and what solutions agencies and lawmakers should propose to ensure that everyone in California has access to clean, safe, and affordable drinking water.

MCLE Materials

Links

Panel II: Ecosystem-Based Management to ESA: Improving Federal & State Approaches to Species Protection in California
Organized by University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law

This panel will discuss the “ecosystem-based management” (EBM) approach to species conservation recently explored by the Public Policy Institute of California and others, and connect EBM to current water issues in California. Our panel will discuss how EBM’s multi-benefit approach can help California refocus its indicators for species protection under federal and state law, improve outcomes for listed species and their broader habitats, protect unlisted species, facilitate environmental restoration, and provide a stronger foundation for human use of water. The panel of experts will describe EBM from legal, policy, institutional, and scientific perspectives, and explore opportunities and challenges for implementation.

MCLE Materials

Links

Panel III: Federal Deregulation in the West: Shasta Dam
Organized by UC Davis School of Law

There are ongoing uncertainties at Shasta Dam as to the dam raise, fish protection, and how the federal government will proceed and what actions farmers in the central and southern portions of California will pursue to secure necessary water supplies. We’re going to discuss recent and ongoing litigation at Shasta Dam between federal and state, President Trump’s 2018 Water in the West Memo, NOAA’s biological opinion on Shasta Dam that has been 20 years in the making, the potential to import salmon from New Zealand, and the impact of Baley v. U.S.

MCLE Materials

Links

NOAA Biological Opinion

Panel IV:Rollbacks in the Wetlands: California’s Shift from Federal to State Jurisdiction following Alterations to the Clean Water Act
Organized by University of San Francisco

The federal government has rolled back Clean Water Act provisions, effectively eliminating protection of wetlands areas, which were traditionally sheltered under federal jurisdiction. In response to the rollbacks, California’s State Water Resources Control Board proposed new rules for state wetlands regulation, which were approved by the California Office of Administrative Law in August 2019 and will become effective in May 2020. Federal and state officials will explain their new programs, and representatives from environmental and property rights’ interest groups will offer their perspectives on implications for California and the nation.

MCLE Materials

Panel V:Promises and Challenges of Western Dam Removals: Lessons from the Lower Klamath Project
Organized by Stanford University

The Lower Klamath Agreement is a comprehensive and complex plan designed to address water management and use in the Klamath Basin. It involves the planned removal of four dams and tens of millions of dollars worth of restoration efforts. This panel will explore the federal, state, local, tribal, industry, and civil society dynamics at play in both the negotiation and implementation of the Agreement. It will chart the many regulatory and jurisdictional challenges that affect the Agreement’s implementation and backgrounded the negotiations. The panel will also touch upon the underlying context of competing water uses and a changing energy generation landscape. Finally, the panel will provide larger takeaways for future potential dam removal projects in the American West.

MCLE Materials

Panel VI: The Effect of a Changing ESA on California Fisheries
Organized by UC Berkeley School of Law

The Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) is one of the most important and effective environmental laws enacted in the United States. Many species, including the sea otter and bald eagle, have made a comeback because of the ESA. But now, the ESA is threatened by the Trump Administration and its agenda to weaken current protections. This panel will discuss the impacts from Trump’s rollbacks to the ESA and how states, such as California, are attempting to fight back to maintain the Obama-era protections that were put in place to protect important ecosystems such as the Delta. In addition to the ESA, panelists will discuss the California Endangered Species Act and its role in protecting fisheries throughout the Delta.

MCLE Materials

#CAWLS2020 Photo Gallery

This year’s symposium was a lively day of debate, knowledge sharing, and community. If you were not able to make it, here’s hoping you can join us next year for #CAWLS2021!

California’s Fight for Clean Air

bacilio

Bacilio Mendez II is a fourth year Honors JD/MBA student at the GGU School of Law/Edward S. Ageno School of Business ('20) where he is the Founding Editor-In-Chief of the GGU Tax & Estate Planning Review, Submissions & Web Editor of the GGU Environmental Law Journal, and Executive Website Editor of the GGU Law Review. Bacilio is also the former Director of Information and Compliance for Benjamin Madison Wealth Advisors. In 2013, Bacilio was named the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Legal Worker of the Year and was an NLG 2012 W. Haywood Burns Memorial Fellow for Social & Economic Justice (focusing on data visualization of public information). Prior to law school, Bacilio earned a Master of Library and Information Science from Pratt Institute where he served the Kings County Supreme Court, of the New York State Unified Court System, as the 2010 Nathan R. Sobel Law Library Fellow and was inducted into Beta Phi Mu (the International Library & Information Studies Honor Society). Bacilio also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Dance from Oberlin College and is a member of both the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Actors' Equity Association. You can reach out to Bacilio via http://bacilio.com and connect with him on LinkedIn.