Abstract
This paper analyzes the public trust doctrine in Western water law, reviewing the modem lodestar of the public trust in water, the Mono Lake case, and its aftermath both in the Mono Lake Basin and elsewhere in California. Particular attention is given to the public trust doctrine's role in reallocating water supplies in the San Francisco Bay-Delta and the American River. The paper also considers the public trust in water beyond California, focusing especially on cases in Idaho and Washington but also examining developments in North Dakota, Montana, Alaska, Oregon, Utah and Arizona. The paper concludes that the public trust doctrine's slow evolution in Western water decisionmaking is due to the fact that the doctrine's fundamental principle of accommodation between diversionary and trust uses has not been widely understood.
How to Cite
37 Ariz. L. Rev. 701 (1995)
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