Professor Frank Comments on Water Suit for Daily Journal

Professor Rick Frank commented for an article in the Daily Journal on a lawsuit by water advocacy groups attempting to curb the amount of water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.  The suit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, alleges the state Department of Water Resources and the State Water Resources Control Board are violating the public trust doctrine by failing to protect the delta's water quality and endangered fish, and that pumping activity violates a state Constitutional ban on the unreasonable use of water and unreasonable methods of diverting water.

The unreasonable use claims, combined with the public trust doctrine "have really been sleeping giants in California water politics, policy and law and I'm not surprised to see them coming to the fore," said Professor Frank.

Professor Frank, a 1974 graduate of King Hall, is Executive Director of the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment at UC Berkeley and a Visiting Lecturer at King Hall.