What Lies Beneath: Determining the Necessity of International Groundwater Policy Along the United States   Mexico Border and a Roadmap to an Agreement

Hardberger, Amy

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1874045

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Within that small area, Oklahoma and Texas promote arguably unsustainable use of the aquifer (although that may be changing), while Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico aim to conserve the aquifer. Having such different legal regimes governing the same aquifer within a small area can be problematic if the liberal water‐use policies of some states undermine the conservative water‐use policies of neighboring states (Hardberger 2004). Although there seem to be no past lawsuits regarding groundwater pumping in one state directly causing groundwater problems in another state in the High Plains aquifer, both recent interstate conflicts between Kansas and Colorado (regarding the Arkansas River Compact) and Kansas and Nebraska (regarding the Republican River Compact) involved impacts of groundwater pumping on interstate river flows (Sophocleous 2010).…”

Section: Water Law and Governance In The High Plains Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retracted: Conserving and Extending the Useful Life of the Largest Aquifer in North America: The Future of the High Plains/Ogallala Aquifer

Sophocleous

2012

Groundwater

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The water‐level decline of the High Plains/Ogallala aquifer is one of the largest water management concerns in the United States. The economy and livelihood of people living in that vast region depend almost exclusively on water extracted from that aquifer. A debate about its future is ongoing, and questions remain as to how best to conserve the groundwater resource. Maintaining the aquifer will require reductions in pumping and irrigated hectarage and adopting additional conservation measures. Eventually, the agricultural system will have to be based dominantly on the renewable water resources of the region. In effect, this means a limited‐irrigation and/or dry‐farming regime. What Kansas is currently doing to further extend the life of the aquifer is presented here together with additional measures that could be taken. A key management approach to help sustain the aquifer in western Kansas is to divide the aquifer into subunits on which to base localized management decisions. Another recently adopted measure is the establishment of local enhanced management areas, which would allow locally agreed upon specific corrective controls in those areas. History has shown that incentive and voluntary plans alone have not been successful in halting water‐level declines. Thus, limits and timelines need to be set and checks must be in place to enforce strict administration of conservation measures. It is advocated that water laws be reformed and modernized so that “water rights” are constrained by the current availability of water and the preservation of the resource base for future generations.

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Section: Water Law and Governance In The High Plains Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retracted: Conserving and Extending the Useful Life of the Largest Aquifer in North America: The Future of the High Plains/Ogallala Aquifer

Sophocleous

2012

Groundwater

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“…private landowners have exclusive and absolute rights over the groundwater located on their property. Accordingly, the government of Texas and the U.S. federal government have limited jurisdictional power over the private use of the resources (Hardberger 2004, 1240-2, Wurbs 2004). 107 The regulation of groundwater exploitation by public authorities would require the significant reordering of the existing water rights and the revision of a large body of jurisprudence-in other words, the reform of the principles of groundwater governance in Texas 107 Texas limits its control over groundwater rights to cases in which landowners pump groundwater with "malice or wanton waste."…”

Section: B) Few Venues For Scientific Cooperationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining the Emergence of Transboundary Groundwater Management: The Cases of Guaraní Aquifer System, the Hueco and Mesilla Bolsón Aquifers, and the Génévois Aquifer

Walter¹

2012

SSRN Journal

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“…and the geographic and legal literature is already replete wilh excellent summaries (Matsumoto. 2002: Nanni et ai, 2002Hardberger. 2004;Burchi & Mechlem, 2005;Eckstein & Eckstein.…”

Section: A Distinctioti Between Global and International Commonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Groundwater governance and the Law of the Hidden Sea

López-Gunn

Jarvis

2009

Water Policy

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The paper offers an alternative interdisciplinary approach to dealing with lhe complexity associated with groundwater resources, providing a new angle thai inlegrates deep grotindwater systems as defined by hydrogeologists with a paradigm shift In natural resource governance, developed by political scientists. It questions the piecemeal approach to governance of groundwater resources, coupled with the lack of acknowledgment regarding the hydraulic connection ol vast deep aquifers-or a hidden sea of groundwater. Rather than relying on ttaditional approaches to groundwaler governance, which treat the resource like a mineral resource underlying lhe houndaries of a sovereign nation, the "post-sovereignty" and "multi-level" governance model proposed here for groundwater resources acknowledges that groundwater is hydraulically connected to the ocean and is equally complex with respect to predictive modeling. Existing legal instruments as.sociated with the ocean that fall under the global "contract" of the UNCLOS. together with ongoing efforts to develop a legal instrument for transhoundary aquifers, offer useful lessons. The paper concludes thai a "world water contract" or Law of the Hidden Sea could be adapted to incorporate groundwater as a global common, deep aquifers thai are not in direct hydraulic connection with surface water resources and that are part of the developing common heritage of mankind.

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What Lies Beneath: Determining the Necessity of International Groundwater Policy Along the United States Mexico Border and a Roadmap to an Agreement

Cited by 6 publications

References 5 publications

Retracted: Conserving and Extending the Useful Life of the Largest Aquifer in North America: The Future of the High Plains/Ogallala Aquifer

Retracted: Conserving and Extending the Useful Life of the Largest Aquifer in North America: The Future of the High Plains/Ogallala Aquifer

Explaining the Emergence of Transboundary Groundwater Management: The Cases of Guaraní Aquifer System, the Hueco and Mesilla Bolsón Aquifers, and the Génévois Aquifer

Groundwater governance and the Law of the Hidden Sea

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