Great Lakes Law

Capping the Bottle on Uncertainty: Closing the Information Loophole in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact – Guest Post by Jeff Dornbos

This is the second of two guest posts by Jeffrey Dornbos, an attorney with Warner Norcross & Judd in Holland, Michigan. In addition to his legal background, Jeff also taught environmental science, holds a captain’s license from the U.S. Coast Guard, and is a SCUBA diver. Jeff’s guest posts introduce his two excellent law review articles focusing on management of transboundary water resources – “Capping the Bottle on Uncertainty: Closing the Information Loophole in the... Read more →

Colorado bottled water dispute raises questions about western water deals and renews calls for federal regulatory reform

Another bottled water fight is heating up, this time in Colorado, where Nestle is moving forward with plans to bottle spring water that feeds the Arkansas River. Scot Kersgaard of the Colorado Independent has superb reporting of the dispute, which follows the typical storyline of bottled water fights in rural communities (with an interesting twist of some local officials from Chaffee County making cash on the deal). From a legal perspective, the Colorado controversy raises... Read more →

Is groundwater marketing legal?

When Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens proposed a massive scheme to acquire, market, and sell Texas groundwater, many water wonks began questioning if groundwater marketing is legal. (For the latest on the Pickens water scheme and its legal issues, see Dr. Michael Campana’s WaterWired blog.) Regardless of the merits of Pickens’ proposal, it raises the fundamental question of whether groundwater marketing is legal under the diverse state laws that apply to groundwater rights. I... Read more →

Protecting Freshwater Resources in the Era of Global Water Markets: Lessons Learned from Bottled Water

The University of Denver’s Water Law Review has just published my article, “Protecting Freshwater Resources in the Era of Global Water Markets: Lessons Learned from Bottled Water.” The citation is 13 U. Denv. Water L. Rev. 1 (2009), and I’m honored that the article was selected as the lead article of this year’s volume of the Water Law Review. The article covers a brief history of bottled water, the business of bottled water, and opposition... Read more →

Protecting Freshwater Resources in the Era of Global Water Markets: Lessons Learned from Bottled Water

My most recent article, Protecting Freshwater Resources in the Era of Global Water Markets: Lessons Learned from Bottled Water, will be published in the next volume of the University of Denver’s Water Law Review and a prepublication draft is now available online. The article covers a brief history of bottled water, the business of bottled water, and opposition to bottled water, along with a short summary of international trade law and federal food law as... Read more →

Reforming bottled water safety and labeling rules

While most of my work on bottled water is focused on the environmental impact of water withdrawals from aquifers and streams, there are also important issues of safety and labeling in the bottled water industry. Those issues were the subject this week of a Congressional hearing and federal Government Accountability Office report. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), held a hearing on the “Regulation... Read more →

Bottled water exporters and importers

With the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s approval of a new Nestlé well to supply its bottled water plant in northern Michigan and debate over bottled water at the Great Lakes Town Hall, I’ll offer a graphic to tell a thousand words about the global bottled water market. Source - UN Comtrade online database, 2006; Cartographer/Designer - Emmanuelle Bournay (original available at http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/major_bottled_water_exporters_and_importers) Read more →

Another view of the Great Lakes compact

The House of Representatives is expected to take up approval of the Great Lakes compact when it comes back in session next week. During the August recess, a small but important group of Great Lakes advocates (notably Representative Bart Stupak and author Dave Dempsey) have raised some provocative questions regarding the Great Lakes compact’s treatment of bottled water. They are concerned that by allowing bottled water, the Great Lakes compact turns water into a product... Read more →

Are the Great Lakes for sale?

“Great Lakes for Sale: From Whitecaps to Bottlecaps” is the provocative title of a new book by environmental activist and author Dave Dempsey. I’ve worked with Dave on several issues over the years and enjoyed his previous books, especially “Ruin and Recovery: Michigan’s Rise as a Conservation Leader,” the definitive Michigan environmental history reference. I was a bit skeptical of his latest book, perhaps doubting that its thin spine (it has less than a hundred... Read more →

Two perspectives on bottled water

With bottled water back in the news after Nestlé announced that it’s pulling out of its contentious project in McCloud, California, I figured it’s a good time to briefly review two recent books on bottled water. “Wellsprings: A Natural History Of Bottled Spring Waters” by Francis H. Chapelle provides a comprehensive history of bottled water and a technical overview of the hydrology that creates spring water. Dr. Chapelle is a widely respected hydrologist with the... Read more →