Great Lakes Law

Book review - Burning Rivers: Revival of Four Urban-Industrial Rivers that Caught on Fire, by Dr. John Hartig

Remember when rivers catching fire symbolized environmental degradation? I don’t - I was born in 1974, and my generation saw environmental values debated through Styrofoam cups and the spotted owl (rather lame symbols in comparison to a burning river). But the stories of rivers burning became a legendary chapter in the making of environmental law and the growth of political environmentalism. Yet I never understood the complexity of the problem, and the tremendous success in... Read more →

Alternative Strategies for managing pharmaceutical and personal care products in water resources – Guest Post by Gabriel Eckstein

The following guest post is by Gabriel Eckstein, a professor of law at Texas Wesleyan University. Prof. Eckstein is also the Director of the International Water Law Project and a Senior Fellow with the Texas Tech Center for Water Law & Policy. He and George William Sherk recently published an EPA-funded study entitled “Alternative Strategies for Managing Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products in Water Resources.” The study is available on the Micropollutants Clearinghouse website, a... Read more →

Landmark public trust decision from the Wisconsin Supreme Court – Guest Post by Melissa Scanlan

The following guest post is by Melissa Scanlan, a legal expert who has spent over a decade working to protect the waters of her home state of Wisconsin. Much of her scholarship and advocacy has focused on the public trust doctrine and its role in state water management. For more info about Melissa, see her previous Great Lakes Law guest post. When Nestle-Perrier tried to set up a spring water pumping and bottling plant in... Read more →

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Implementation of the Great Lakes Compact – Guest Post by Sara Gosman

The following guest post is by Sara Gosman, a water resource attorney with the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center, and the leading regional expert on state implementation of the Great Lakes Compact. Sara is also a lecturer at the University of Michigan Law School, teaching a variety of environmental law courses (see her faculty bio for more details). Two weeks ago, Ohio became the last state to take action to implement the Great... Read more →