the activities
Who Does the Water Belong To? (Water Law) Description: In this activity students will experience water scarcity in their own classroom and investigate water rights. Water cannot be used without legal right to its capture and use. The legal right to capture and use water is called a “water right”. Go directly to:
For example, in a 1922 agreement, the states of the US southwest divided the Colorado River among themselves. 7.5 million acre-feet (amount of water that will cover 1 acre to a depth of 1 foot, about 325,000 gallons) was to be shared by Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico. These are all states in which tributaries of the river originate. Also, 7.5 million acre-feet was to be shared by Arizona, Nevada, and California. These are all states through which the river flows. Another agreement gave Mexico, where the mouth of the Colorado River empties into the Gulf of California, the right to 1.5 million acre-feet. This agreement also gave Native Americans whatever amount they needed, although their use was almost nonexistent at the time. All went well as long as demands were below the allocated rights. As population has grown each party is still demanding its full share. The only problem is that the total average flow of the Colorado is only 14.9 million acre-feet. Even worse, the past few years flow has dropped to just 9 million acre-feet. Have students do a word search on the Troubled Waters script for the interview with Dr. Courtney Hackney, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, to find information on Colorado, the Rio Grande, and Mexico. Another example of a water allocation problem takes us to the other side of the world. About 90% of the tributaries of the Nile River, which flows through Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea, occur in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is now considering ways to ease its drought and famine. Egypt depends on the Nile water and has blocked a loan for the Ethiopian project. The West Bank is a piece of territory on the western bank of the Jordan River. The conflict between Israel and Jordan over the West Bank is as much over access to water as over territory. People speculate that the next war in the Mideast may well be over water. Have discussions with students on what moral and ethical principles are involved in such disputes? What are the moral dilemmas? How do you think they should be resolved? Who should be the final authorities to enforce agreements? Water rights are used to allocate water in an organized and systematic manner. A water right allows an individual, business, community, or agency to use a specified amount of water. People may own the water right, but never the water. The history of water rights is closely related to settlement and land ownership. If a person owned the land, he or she could readily make use of water on or adjacent to their property. Over time, however, this simple allocation didn't work well because people began to settle areas along rivers upstream of the first settlers. These new settlers, although arriving later in time, now began to use water once only used by those downstream. In times of water scarcity, the downstream user might receive less water than they felt entitled to. The conflict that emerged pitted neighbor against neighbor in a fight for water, and ultimately resulted in a fight for basic survival. A region's water rights doctrine is the result of many human and environmental factors. The successful settlement of the Western United States was as closely tied to water as to any other factor. Limited water quantity is usually not the only issue. How people use water is also critical. Instream flows describe the amount of water needed to sustain fish, recreation, wildlife, or designated base flow needs. It is important to all water users to be assured of a supply of water. The nation's system of water rights allocation exists to resolve differences, which arise from many different needs and water uses. Discuss the water rights' doctrines. Explain to students that water rights doctrines generally fall into four categories:
Under Roman law flowing water was considered to be public property, which meant that rivers and their branches could not be commercialized. The political and military power of the feudal system was limited by rural communities for which water, being continually renewed, was a public property and could not be appropriated by feudal right. By the 1566 Edict of Moulins, the royal authority in France decreed that all rivers and their tributaries carrying boats belonged to the crown; previously acquired individual rights, which included fishing and the use of mills and barges, were still honored. Throughout history water rights have been largely included under property rights, making the amount or volume of water a relatively insignificant issue. In the United States, two major water rights doctrines, the riparian and the prior appropriation systems are applied to surface water in streams. Riparian water systems are largely unregulated and unquantified and are tied to riparian land ownership. On the other hand, a state agency and appropriative rights administer the prior appropriation system. As settlement progressed westward across the US, most states adopted the common law of England as the rule of law, and with it acquired the riparian system already in use in the eastern states. It soon became apparent that this system was not well suited for the hydrologic conditions in the more arid West, and it was either replaced by prior appropriation or the latter doctrine was overlaid on the preexisting riparian system. It was proven difficult to correlate dissimilar riparian and appropriative water rights where the two systems exist concurrently. In recent years, change in climatic conditions worldwide has plunged the southeastern United States into first stage drought conditions, with some areas suffering from severe drought conditions. Across much of this region, streams, rivers and lakes are at the lowest levels ever recorded, a condition that has continued to worsen since the late 1980's as the southeast experiences mild winters, very hot summers, and below average rainfall. The persistency of the drought conditions, coupled with increases in water use by industries and growing populations has resulted in a controversy over water quantity in the usually water-plentiful gulf and southeast region. Although rains were consistent in 2003, water scarcity issues still persist. One such controversy is the so called "tri-state water war", between Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. In 1990, the city of Atlanta, after assessing its projected population growth and future water needs, sought a permit from the Corps of Engineers to create reservoirs on the Chattahoochee, Flint, and Coosa Rivers that would retain an additional 529 million gallons of water a day to be stored in Lake Sidney Lanier, Atlanta's major source of drinking water. Atlanta's long-term plan included an increase in withdrawals of 50% from the Chattahoochee and Flint by the year 2010. This proposal and announcement by the Corps set off a dispute between Georgia and its downstream neighbors, Alabama and Florida. Alabama viewed the plan as a threat to its own water supply, possibly stunting industrial and population growth in the state and resulting in degraded water quality due to the decrease in water flow. Alabama argued that the downstream flow already brings with it Atlanta's pollution and that a decrease in the water flow would mean more pollutants that would not get diluted. Florida joined the dispute contending that the plan to siphon off more water from the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers would deplete the flow into Florida's Apalachicola Bay and would critically injure the state's $70 million oyster industry. Unable to convince Atlanta to stop its plans, Alabama filed a lawsuit in federal court to prevent the Corps from implementing the siphoning plan. Florida later joined the suit. In 1992, the lawsuit was suspended pending a comprehensive study of the future water needs of the three states. In apprehension of the results of the study, the three states entered into two interstate water Compacts that would allow the governors of each state and one federal appointee to analyze the study's finding and divide the water supplies accordingly. The scarcity of water in the Rocky Mountain and southwestern states has led to the development of a system of water allocation very different from that which exists in regions with more abundant rainfall. Rights to water are established by actual use of the water, and maintained by continued use and need. Water rights are treated similarly to rights to real property, can be conveyed, mortgaged, and encumbered in the same manner, all independently of the land on which the water originates, or on which it is used. There are water rights governing the arid areas of the country. The use of water in many of the states in the western U.S. are governed by the doctrine of prior appropriation, also known as the "Colorado Doctrine" of water law. Have students search the "Troubled Waters" script for the interview with Sandra Postel, Director, Global Water Policy Project, to find global, national, and local water rights information. Sandra Postel Interview (Microsoft Word document) There is a relative newcomer to the water rights scheme that is being embraced by a growing number of eastern states, that of a hybridized version of the riparian and prior appropriation doctrines. Research is underway to address what role the riparian doctrine plays in the east in the face of increasing water disputes and how changing water rights will affect the negotiation of allocation disputes in the future. Also, analysis is being implemented on how western states have resolved water quantity disputes, focusing on the shortcomings of each of the three traditional methods of resolution and examining how the experiences in the west can be used to establish a model for compact drafting, alternative dispute resolution, enforcement and modification and the federal government's participation. Hopefully, this analysis will create a template for negotiation, allocation and water compact agreements for future water quantity disputes. Have students research these new implications for eastern and western states. Water Rights Simulation Prepare for this activity by asking students not to drink water during breaks or before class, thus creating not only a physical need for water but a philosophical need. Give no instructions other than having each student take a seat and pour themselves a drink of water from the container you have provided into their cup and passing the container to the next student. Make sure the container does not have enough water for all students. Pay close attention to the look on students' faces and the remarks made by those that did not get a drink. This will convey the message that sometimes a water supply cannot meet all needs. Divide students into 5 groups. Each group will choose one of the water rights to research and present their information to the class. Within their group presentations students will give their beliefs as to whether water should be allocated or should be unrestricted use. After presentations (about a week) restrict drinking privileges before class once again. On the first day these restricitions were imposed, students ran out of water. Therefore, students are now experienced in water shortage and can be expected to try to conserve and gage their water use. Utilize the same amount of water. By doing so, your students already know they will run out of water if consumption amounts are not monitored. When you pass the container, this time, reverse the order in which you begin. Those who were first the week before, are now last. Ask the students who did not get water this time, how they feel about those who did. How do they feel about the supplier, the teacher? Discuss prior appropriation water rights and the fact that they are allocated on first come, first serve basis. To demonstrate how this works, have students line up from oldest to youngest. The oldest student will pour as much water into his or her cup as desired, then pass the container on down the line. With this self-imposed water right in use, students will get a taste of the prior appropriation doctrine. Have some groups use the water right that they researched to create a simulation or skit to perform for the class to give the audience a realistic example of the water right in use. Choose other groups to create and perform skits on water rights issues facing their local areas.
Do a word search of theUNCW educational documentary "Troubled Waters" script to look for the interview with Tom Leahy, Water Resources Manager in the City of Virginia Beach, to gather information on Equitable Proportionment and how it relates to Virginia Beach/Lake Gaston. Rent the video “Chinatown,” 1974, or visit http://members.aol.com/rwsmittjr/scripts/chinatown.txt for an entire script of the movie. Writer Robert Towne's screenplay was partially based on a true Los Angeles scandal in the early part of the 20th century (the story of the immoral 1908 Owens Valley Rape and scandalous San Fernando Valley land-grab by speculators). The film's character Hollis Mulwray was loosely derived from LA's water engineer William Mulholland, who orchestrated the purchase of water rights and the piping of water from the High Sierras into Los Angeles by an aqueduct that flowed through the now-valuable San Fernando Valley north of LA. Have students research the real story while comparing and contrasting with the movie. Students can take various positions from the characters in the movie and debate their positions. Students can also choose a global or national water rights situation and create a skit to role-play. For an Educator’s Guide to Copyright and Fair Use for movies, music, and all technology go to www.techlearning.com and check out the October 2002 archived issue of Technology and Learning. To discuss how pollution can impact water users, about half way through the activity add a drop of food coloring, a sugar lump to symbolize the invisible chemicals that are carried in water, or salt to demonstrate how used water accumulates salts. Introduce water contamination. When given amounts of contaminants are found in water, the amount is expressed in parts per million (PPM) or parts per billion (PPB). As the volume of water in a river increases, the PPM or PPB will decrease. If the volume of water decreases, the concentration of contaminant will then increase. This concept fostered the saying "the solution to pollution is dilution". The idea is to prevent pollution before it gets started. Have your students list ways on how water quantity can affect water quality. To investigate instream flow, place a fish bowl at the end of the last row of students and again pass the water container. The goal is to have enough water left in the container to sustain the fish. Ask students in reality why will this most likely be a difficult deed to accomplish? Articles US Water Rights: A Legal and Cultural Perspective http://carbon.cudenver.edu/stc-link/weblink/water/materials/beall-riog.html Policies, Laws, and Doctrines for Eastern and Western States http://www.if.uidaho.edu/~medakins/ENVS582/Class11Inland.htm US Water New: Litigation/Water Rights Archives (1995-2003) http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcrights/arcrights.html Books Finding Common Ground: Governance and Natural Resources in the American West Ronald D. Yale University Press. 2002. Vranesh's Colorado Water Law. James N. Corbridge Jr. and Teresa A. Rice. University Press of Colorado. 2000. The Nile Basin: National Determinants of Collective Action. John Waterbury. Yale University Press. 2002.
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