Resources

Image: Windsor Riley

Mono Lake at 20: Past, Present and Future
Byron Sher Auditorium, State Water Resources Control Board
Sacramento, CA
November 17, 2014

Resources and Materials

Session 1. Retrospective on Mono Lake Cases

What motivated the Mono Lake Cases?  Which of the legal, political, and physical factors drove the cases,
and specifically, contributed to the creative approaches to squaring water supply and public trust?  Why were the cases a turning point in California water law?

• Mono Lake Committee film: http://www.monolake.org/about/film
• Mono Lake Committee compilation for Los Angeles Aqueduct Centennial:
  http://www.monobasinresearch.org/images/2013AqueductCentennialFactSheet.pdf
• Mono Lake Committee natural history: http://www.monolake.org/about/history
• Political & Legal Chronology http://www.monobasinresearch.org/timelines/polchr.php
• California State Water Resources Control Board, Mono Lake Basin Water Right Decision 1631 (Sept. 28, 1994)
  http://www.waterrights.ca.gov/hearings/decisions/WRD1631.PDF
• Illinois Cent. R. Co. v. State of Illinois, 146 U.S. 387 (1892)
• Nat’l Audubon Soc’y v. Superior Court, 33 Cal.3d 419 (1983) (Mono Lake Case)
• Joseph L. Sax, The public trust doctrine in natural resource law: Effective judicial intervention, 68 MICH. L. REV. 471 (1970)
• Michael C. Blumm, Public Property and the Democratization of Western Water Law: a Modern View of the Public Trust Doctrine, ISSUES IN LEGAL SCHOLARSHIP 3.1 (2003)
• Michael C. Blumm & Thea Schwartz, Mono Lake and the Evolving Public Trust in Western Water, 37 ARIZ. L. REV. 701 (1995)
• Carol M. Rose, Joseph Sax and the Idea of the Public Trust, 25 ECOLOGY L.Q. 351 (1998)
• Jan S. Stevens, The Public Trust and In-Stream Uses, 19 ENVTL. L. 605 (1988)
• Harrison C. Dunning, The Public Trust: A Fundamental Doctrine of American Property Law, 19 ENVTL. L. 515 (1988)
• Cynthia L. Koehler, Water rights and the public trust doctrine: Resolution of the Mono Lake controversy, 22 ECOLOGY L.Q. 541 (1995)

Session 2. Outlook for Mono Lake and its Creeks

What progress has been made to restore public trust uses of Mono Lake and its tributary creeks?
How well have the monitoring programs worked to inform adaptive management of the flow schedules and other restoration measures?
What does the future hold for the Mono Basin?  How will the 2013 Settlement affect the continued implementation of D-1631?

• Mono Basin Settlement Agreement
  In the matter of: City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Water Right Licenses Nos. 10191 and 10192, Settlement Agreement Appendix 1
  (Proposed Amendments to Water Rights of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power)

Session 3. Implications of Changes since 1994 in California’s Water Rights System

Following the Mono Lake Cases, how have the SWRCB and courts implemented this precedent in regulating other existing water rights or granting new rights?
How well is the water rights system working to manage conflicts between beneficial uses?

• Dave Owen, The Mono Lake Case, the Public Trust Doctrine, and the Administrative State, 45 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 1099 (2011)
  http://mainelaw.maine.edu/faculty/pdf/Owen/45ucdavis1099.pdf
• Richard M. Frank, The Public Trust Doctrine: Assessing Its Recent Past & Charting Its Future, 45 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 665 (2011)
  http://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/issues/45/3/topic/45-3_frank.pdf
• Karrigan S. Bork et al., The Rebirth of California Fish & Game Code Section 5937: Water for Fish, 45 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 809 (2011)
• 2011 UC Davis Symposium more generally:
  http://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/issues/45/3/
• Order after Hearing on Cross Motions for Judgment on the Pleadings, Environmental Law Foundation v. State Water Resources Control Board (2014) (Scott River Case):
  http://www.envirolaw.org/documents/ScottOrderonCrossMotions.pdf
• Gregory S. Weber, Articulating the Public Trust: Text, Near-Text and Context, 27 Ariz. St. L.J. 1155, 1155 (1995)
• California State Water Resources Control Board, Order Requiring Releases of Water from Bear Valley Dam for Fishery Protection, Order WR 95–4 (Feb. 16, 1995) http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/board_decisions/adopted_orders/orders/1995/wro95-04.pdf
• California State Water Resources Control Board, Fishery Resources and Water Right Issues of the Lower Yuba River, Revised Decision 1644 (July 16, 2003) http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/board_decisions/adopted_orders
  /decisions/d1600_d1649/wrd1644revised.pdf

Session 4. Applications at Greater Scale and Complexity

The Mono Lake Cases involved a single water right holder controlling the affected waters.
Does the precedent of these cases work effectively in the much greater scale and complexity of the Central Valley and other watersheds in the State?  If so, how?
Is the public trust doctrine a useful authority to address climate change and other non-stationary stressors for our aquatic ecosystems?

• Joe Sax, Learning from Failure: California’s 30 Years’ War in the Delta (Part I), CAL. WATER LAW & POLICY (Aug./Sept. 2013)
• Joe Sax, Learning from Failure: California’s 30 Years’ War in the Delta (Part II), CAL. WATER LAW & POLICY (Oct. 2013)
• Brian E. Gray, Ensuring the Public Trust, 45 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 973 (2011)
• Ronald B. Robie, Effective Implementation of the Public Trust Doctrine in California Water Resources Decision-Making: A View from the Bench, 45 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 1155 (2011)
• Theodore E. Grantham et al., Systematic Screening of Dams for Environmental Flow Assessment and Implementation, 64 BIOSCIENCE 1006 (2014)
• P. C. D. Milly et al., Stationarity Is Dead: Whither Water Management?, 319 SCIENCE 573-574 (2008)
• G. Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons, 162 SCIENCE 1243 (1968)
• S. Stine, Extreme and Persistent Drought in California and Patagonia During Medieval Time, 369 NATURE 546 (1994)
• William K. Stevens, Severe Ancient Droughts: A Warning to California, N.Y. TIMES, July 19, 1994
• Statement of Decision, Putah Creek Water Cases, Judicial Council Coordination No. 2565, Solano Superior Ct. No. 108552, Sacramento Superior Ct. No. 515766, July 19, 1996.
• Joseph L. Sax, “Bringing an Ecological Perspective to Natural Resources
  Law: Fulfilling the Promise of the Public Trust,”  L.
  MacDonnell & S.Bates, Natural Resources Policy and Law–Trends and
  Directions (1993).