Searching Out The Headwaters

Sarah F. Bates, David H. Getches, Lawrence J. MacDonnell,

ISBN 10: 1559632186 / ISBN 13: 9781559632188

Published by Island Press, Washington, DC, 1993

About this Item

Good COnditon paperback 242 pages.

Seller Inventory # 035438

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Searching Out The Headwaters
• Publisher: Island Press, Washington, DC
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1559632186
• ISBN 13: 9781559632188
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

To the uninitiated, water policy seems a complicated, hypertechnical, and incomprehensible subject: a tangle of engineering jargon and legalese surrounding a complex, delicate, and interrelated structure. Decisions concerning the public's waters involve scant public participation, and in such a context, reform seems risky at best.

Searching Out the Headwaters addresses that precarious situation by providing a thorough and straightforward analysis of western water use and the outmoded rules that govern it. The authors begin by tracing the history and evolution of the uses of western water. They describe the demographic and economic changes now occurring in the region, and identify the many communities of interest involved in all water-use issues. After an examination of the central precepts of current water policy, along with their original rationale and subsequent evolution, they consider the reform movement that has recently begun to emerge. In the end, the authors articulate the foundations for a water policy that can meet the needs of the new West and discuss the various means for effectively implementing such a policy, including market economics, regulation, the broad-based use of scientific knowledge, and open and full public participation.

About the Authors

Sarah F. Bates is Associate Director of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado School of Law and co-author, with Marc Reisner, of Overtapped Oasis.

David H. Getches, professor of law at the University of Colorado School of Law, is a nationally recognized water resources and Indian law expert. He formerly served as executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources under Governor Richard D. Lamm, and as the founding executive director of the Native American Rights Fund. His many publications include Controlling Water Use: The Unfinished Business of Water Quality Control (Natural Resources Law Center, 1991), Water Law in a Nutshell (West, 1990), and legal texts on water and Indian law.

Lawrence J. MacDonnell is director of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado School of Law.

Charles Wilkinson is Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. Among his books are Crossing the Next Meridian (Island Press, 1992) and The Eagle Bird (Pantheon, 1992).