The answer to the question, “what’s the value of water?” is it depends. No surprise there, but to be clear, I’m not talking about the value of the water that runs out of your tap. I speaking of the value of water that is appurtenant to your farm or ranch land. What’s it worth in […]
In an effort to keep abreast of water, water law, and water rights, I listen regularly to David T. McGimpsey, host of the Water Values Podcast. An attorney with Bigham Greenebaum Doll, David does water law, among other things. In his podcast, he interviews water experts and professionals from all walks of life–engineers, lawyers, hydrologists, water […]
The key paragraph from an article discussing recent oral arguments at the Supreme Court on the Clean Water Act, a case called U.S. Army Corps of Eng’rs v. Hawkes Co., Inc: “The oral argument focused on whether the Corps jurisdictional determination meets the second condition of the Supreme Court’s test for identifying final agency action […]
The bottom line today is that water continues to be an under appreciated and under-valued asset. But water prices will eventually start to rise more quickly – as a result of on-going population and demand growth, drought and increasing scarcity. More and more major urban areas are beginning to bump up against the challenges of true scarcity. And as water […]
“Creative solutions to common problems will be found. The potential is limitless, needing only–as has always been the case in the West–the people to match the challenges: ‘a society to match the scenery,’ as Wallace Stegner expressed it.” Teno Roncalio, Special Master of the Bighorn Adjudication of water rights, quoted in Wyoming’s Big Horn General […]
I listened to an interesting seminar yesterday titled “Estate Planning in Agriculture: Protecting a Way of Life” sponsored by WealthCounsel.com. Stan Miller and Robert Serio were the presenters. Serio covered the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Subsidy Programs and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Programs. He cautioned attorneys to be careful to not to do […]
A very interesting article about water at ProPublica.org. Essentially, the pieces asks whether Wall Street–the good guys on Wall Street, of course–will help us achieve this: [Hedge Fund manager] Disque Deane . . . supports the idea of setting aside what policy makers call “lifeline supplies” to guarantee households some minimal amount of water. […]