Water Law

On July 19, 2023, Colorado Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, Colorado House Representative Joe Neguse, and New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich introduced the Tribal Access to Clean Water Act of 2023, 1 which ramps up critical funding for Tribal clean water initiatives across the country. Access to clean water...

GWC Water Law Fellow Frannie Monasterio collaborated with four other attorneys (Elizabeth G. Bentley, Elisabeth Parker, Clifford B. Parkinson, and Heather Tanana) on an amicus brief to the Supreme Court filed on behalf of DigDeep and the Utah Tribal Relief Foundation. Download the DigDeep UTRF Amicus Brief here

Berggren, J., J. Fleck, D. Kenney and Mariana Rivera-Torres. 2022. A Pie No More? Building a More Equitable Colorado River Governance Structure. IN: Cornerstone at the Confluence: Navigating the Colorado River Compact’s Next Century (edited by Jason Anthony Robison). ISBN-13:978-0-8165-4764-7. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.       In a wide ranging and...

Colorado Law Student, Colin Hull worked with the World Wildlife Fund’s Water Reserves Initiative as part of the GWC’s David Harrison Innovations in Water and Energy Law & Policy Fellowship. As part of this Fellowship, Colin produced the following report exploring water reserves in South America. The urgency of the...

Thursday, June 16 and Friday, June 17 2026 May Be Too Late: Hard Conversations About Really Complicated Issues There is no debate – demands for water across the Colorado River Basin exceed the shrinking supply. Chronic drought, record heat, increasing winds and aridity, as well as rampant wildfires are diminishing...

Kenney, Douglas S., Michael Cohen, John Berggren and Regina M. Buono. 2021. The Colorado River Basin. IN: Sustainability of Engineered Rivers in Arid Lands , (edited by Jurgen Schm andt and Aysegul Kibaroglu). ISBN : 9781108417037. Cambridge University Press. As part of a volume comparing management of major river basins...

Thursday, September 30 and Friday, October 1 Equity in the Colorado River Basin: How to Sustainably Manage a Shrinking Resource Simply put – demands for water in the Colorado River Basin exceed supply. Chronic drought, record heat, and rampant wildfires are already affecting the Basin’s overall health and resilience, and...

Colorado Law Dean James Anaya leads a moderated conversation with Secretary Haaland and Congressman Neguse exploring both agency and legislative priorities regarding public lands and water management, resource extraction, energy development, and related tribal issues – with an environmental/climate justice lens. Land, Water, and People Event Video Now Available CLE...

The Status of Tribal Water Rights in the Colorado River Basin Water & Tribes Initiative | Colorado River Basin Introduction There are 30 federally recognized tribes in the Colorado River Basin. Twenty two of these tribes have recognized rights to use 3.2 million-acre feet (maf) of Colorado River system water...

Universal Access to Clean Water for Tribes in the Colorado River Basin This report was produced for the Water & Tribes Initiative: Colorado River Basin by Heather Tanana (Lead Author), JD/MPH, Assistant Professor of Law (Research) & Stegner Fellow, Wallace Stegner Center – S.J. Quinney College of Law – University...