Minute 331: Supporting Certainty and Predictability for Water Deliveries in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin
River Canyon
Regina M. Buono
Thursday, January 9, 2025

The upcoming change in the U.S. presidential administration, with its threat of tariffs and mass deportation of immigrant communities, has put more attention on the country’s southern border. Despite these and other tensions concerning the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexico and the United States continue to work together to negotiate new approaches and compromises to manage shared water resources sustainably, even as climate change and drought have reduced those supplies.

Protection and Restoration by Watershed: Mississippi River Basin Spotlight
Author
Gayle Killam
Date Released
March 2024
Cover page of report featuring a photo of the Mississippi River Basin

Water bodies and systems are rarely constrained by political boundaries. The ”Watershed Approach” allows for coordination of problem identification, community engagement, planning activities, and improvement projects at the watershed scale, allowing for expanded learning opportunities, more effective leveraging of funds, efficiencies of scale, and wholistic measurements of progress. This report provides a synthesis of history, applications, and tools that make the case for embracing the watershed approach in addressing water management challenges. 

Stream Mitigation: Science, Policy, and Practice
Author
Environmental Law Institute, Stream Mechanics, The Nature Conservancy
Date Released
January 2017
Stream Mitigation: Science, Policy, and Practice

ELI, Stream Mechanics, and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) have partnered to provide a wide-ranging view of the state of stream compensatory mitigation. This report examines how stream compensatory mitigation has evolved in policy and practice and was based on a series of white papers, which can be found on the State of Stream Compensatory Mitigation page.

Regional and Collaborative Approaches to Water, Sewer, and Stormwater Management in Pennsylvania
Author
James M. McElfish, Jr.
Date Released
June 2008
Regional and Collaborative Approaches to Water, Sewer, and Stormwater Management

Water resources and infrastructure management have a great deal to do with sustainable development of our communities. ELI and 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania explore working examples of collaborative municipal and regional approaches to water resources and infrastructure management in a new publication.

Mapping the Energy-Water Policy Landscape
Author
James M. McElfish, Jr., Read Porter, and Adam Schempp
Date Released
August 2010
Mapping the Energy-Water Policy Landscape

This publication identifies the laws and policies that affect water use in the energy sector within the United States. Water quality and quantity are integral to many energy production activities. Most thermoelectric power generation plants require substantial amounts of water for steam generation and cooling, while disposal of combustion byproducts raises issues of water quality. Likewise, the extraction of oil and natural gas using enhanced recovery techniques, and handling of injected and produced water, raise state and federal concerns for oil, gas, and geothermal energy production.

Water Resources Management Program

The Environmental Law Institute's focus on Water Resources Management recognizes that institutional frameworks matter profoundly. Watersheds rarely coincide with jurisdictional boundaries. And water management laws and institutions frequently are limited to specific and narrow objectives — such as allocation of water supplies, construction of infrastructure, concern for endangered species, or administration of specific regulatory mandates — without enough attention to the links among these objectives.

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