Robert W. Adler
Robert W. Adler
Robert W. Adler is the James I. Farr Chair and Professor of Law at the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law. His books include Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems: A Troubled Sense of Immensity (Island Press, 2007); Environmental Law: A Conceptual and Pragmatic Approach (with David Driesen, Aspen, 2007); and The Clean Water Act: 20 Years Later (Island Press, 1993). He has also written dozens of book chapters and articles in legal, scientific and popular sources on a wide range of issues in environmental and water law and policy, and has received numerous awards for his work, including the prestigious “Hammer Award” from Vice President Al Gore, the President’s Award from America’s Clean Water Foundation, the Outstanding Service Award from the Utah Chapter of the American Water Resources Association, the Pfeiferhorn Award for Conservation Leadership in Utah, and the Peter R. Billings Excellence in Teaching Award from the College of Law. Before joining the Utah faculty, he was Clean Water Program Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council; Executive Director of Trustees for Alaska; and a Staff Attorney with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources. Adler received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1980, and his B.A. in ecology from Johns Hopkins University in 1977.
Abstract:The Legal and Ethical Case for a Conservation Pool for Great Salt Lake
Throughout much of the western United States, surface waters have been fully allocated or even over-allocated under the prevailing prior appropriation doctrine of western water law. Because the saline waters of Great Salt Lake are less useful for human consumptive uses (such as public water supply or irrigation), to date the lake has been spared some of the impacts of those policies. However, upstream withdrawals from freshwater source streams have already lowered lake levels significantly relative to what would occur under natural conditions. Moreover, lake levels are further threatened by additional potential future upstream withdrawals, proposals to appropriate additional water from the lake itself for mineral extraction and other purposes, and the potential hydrological impacts of climate change. Because significant further reductions in lake levels could severely affect ecological and other public uses and values of Great Salt Lake, it is important to explore the legal and ethical imperatives for preventing those impacts. Those might derive from the public trust doctrine, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, constitutional and statutory components of Utah water law, and other sources.
Lee Creek - Infrared Image by Jeff Clay
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