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Water Rights
Securing and protecting rights to surface and groundwater, particularly in the arid western United States, requires a deep knowledge of not only the legal framework, but also the competing stakeholders and the historical development of water policy. The lawyers in our water law practice provide that. Our expertise includes Colorado River law and policy; international treaty obligations; state surface and ground water regulation; groundwater-surface water interactions; transfers of surface and groundwater rights; interbasin transfers of groundwater resources; groundwater recharge projects; protection of in-stream flows and riparian areas; and compliance with state-specific assured and adequate water supply requirements. We are likewise familiar with the stakeholders and policy history, having represented a variety of private, public and nonprofit interests, and having served on many of the leading policy development bodies at the international, national and state levels. Our water rights lawyers have served on national and international water policy development committees, including a binational commission established by the International Boundary Water Commission to develop cooperative management strategies for the Colorado River; the Arizona Colorado River Advisory Commission, which advises the Governor and Arizona Department of Water Resources on Colorado River policy; and the Arizona Statewide Water Advisory Group, which recently developed and facilitated passage of legislation reforming the assured water supply requirements in rural Arizona. The relevant experience of our lawyers includes: - Representing a proposed electrical generating facility in the development of a comprehensive surface water and groundwater mitigation plan for impacts associated with proposed pumping, including the transfer of high-priority surface water rights and development of a protected in-stream flow right with associated conservation easements.
- Representing a leading land development and investment company in the creation of a major proposed trans-basin water diversion and supply project, involving negotiations with some two dozen stakeholders representing private, state, federal, municipal, tribal and nonprofit interests.
- Representing a leading nonprofit organization in a nine-year effort to restore the Colorado River Delta ecosystem and negotiate key policy reforms to the Law of the Colorado River and the 1944 water rights treaty between the United States and Mexico.
- Representing one of Arizona’s largest developers on environmental reviews and due diligence, water rights transfers, water supply planning and permitting, community outreach, Clean Water Act Section 404 permitting and federal wetlands mitigation compliance pertaining to large, master-planned development projects.
- Representing a major landowner in the assessment of major, senior surface water rights claims in Arizona’s Lower Gila River including investigation of historic water rights documentation, stream flow information, consumptive use, cropping patterns and potential subflow rights from current and historic well use.
- Advising clients on issues related to the Law of the Colorado River and regional water planning issues.
- Representing the City of Phoenix in drafting and analyzing legislation and legislative advocacy for water-related issues at the Arizona legislature.
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