Professor Frank Addresses Salt Lake Crisis at Utah Event

In late May, Professor Richard Frank spoke to state and federal judges assembled at a National Judicial College-sponsored water law conference in Salt Lake City.

The conference focused on the environmental crisis currently confronting the Great Salt Lake due to fresh water diversions from rivers feeding the lake, protracted drought, and consequential increased salinity of the lake. 

Frank described and analyzed similar environmental crises faced in recent years by California’s Mono Lake and the Walker Lake Basin in Nevada; the current legal and environmental status of those lake basins; and how litigation and scientific lessons learned from those long-running legal disputes can inform judges, lawyers and policymakers who are currently addressing the Great Salt Lake legal controversy and ecosystem crisis.

UC Davis Law Review devoted its annual symposium to the topic of crises facing salt lakes. Frank moderated a panel on Walker Lake at the Sept. 20 event.

Richard M. Frank ’74 is a leader in the field of environmental law, Professor of Environmental Practice and the founding director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law.