Riverflow: The Right to Keep Water Instream

There are many people and places connected to rivers: fishermen whose livelihood depends on river ecosystems, farms that need irrigation, indigenous groups whose cultures rely on fish and flowing waters, cities whose electricity comes from hydroelectric dams, and citizens who seek wild nature. For all of these people, instream flow is vitally important to where and how they live and work. Riverflow reveals the diverse and creative ways people are using the law to restore rivers, from the Columbia, Colorado, Klamath and Sacramento–San Joaquin watersheds in America, to the watersheds of the Tweed in England and Scotland, the Fraser in Canada, the Saru in Japan, the Nile in North Africa, and the Tigris–Euphrates in the Middle East. Riverflow documents that we already have the legal tools to preserve the ecological integrity of our waterways; the question is whether we have the political will to deploy these tools effectively.

Table of Contents:
Foreword; Introduction: Publicum Ius Aquae; 1. Instream Rights and the Public Trust; 2. Instream Rights and Unreasonable Use; 3. Instream Rights and Dams; 4. Instream Rights and Watershed Governance; 5. Instream Rights as Federal Law Recedes; 6. Instream Rights as Water Temperatures Rise; 7. Instream Rights as Sea Levels Rise; 8. Instream Rights and Groundwater Extraction; 9. Instream Rights and Old Canals; 10. Instream Rights and Water as an Investment; 11. Instream Rights and International Law; 12. Instream Rights and Irrigation Subsidies; 13. Instream Rights and Pacific Salmon; 14. Instream Rights and Hatchery Fish; 15. Instream Rights as Indigenous Rights; Conclusion: Policy Disconnected from Science; Attributions; Index.

About the Author :
Paul Stanton Kibel is Professor at Golden Gate University School of Law and Director of its Center on Urban Environmental Law. He has also taught Water Policy in the West at Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy, and water law at Berkeley Law School. He is natural resource counsel to the Water and Power Law Group, and his previous books include The Earth on Trial: Environmental Law on the International Stage (1998) and Rivertown: Rethinking Urban Rivers (2007).

Review :
'Riverflow is not an academically remote piece of scholarship but rather an inventory and revelation of how the law has been and can be deployed to preserve the instream value of rivers.' Felicia Marcus, Former Chair of the California State Water Board 'As a water law practitioner for the past several decades, I have witnessed the interplay between federal and state law in efforts to address the decline in the nation's fishery resources. Professor Kibel's focus on state law remedies to confront this existential threat to our fisheries is a critical reminder of the alternatives available to correct this decline when, as under the Trump administration, the federal government's environmental commitment has diminished or vanished completely.' Clifford T. Lee, Former Deputy Attorney General, California Department of Justice 'Professor Kibel offers the most advanced, in-depth analysis I have come across so far of instream rights. This masterful, comprehensive coverage of the subject from a US water law perspective compellingly dissects such an awesomely vast panoply of contemporary water law topics that any scholar and any practitioner of water and environmental law will feel compelled to drink from this book.' Stefano Burchi, Chairman of the Executive Council, International Association for Water Law (AIDA) 'Riverflow carefully analyses, among other matters, the myriad conflicts which have arisen from the often massive impact of water development on lakes and rivers, and the species they support. The book considers instream rights in a variety of contexts, both in the US and elsewhere, and it also reviews instream water use where rights are not an issue. Riverflow is a 'must read' for anyone who cares about instream flows.' Harrison C. Dunning, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of California, Davis, School of Law '… timely, thoroughly researched analysis of the legal and political tools available to ensure protection of instream water flow in rivers ... Kibel's book is likely to be a definitive work ... Highly recommmended.' D. L. Feldman, Choice