The Stream, December 20: Water Rights Lawsuits

New Mexico is suing the federal government over water allocations from a Bureau of Reclamation water project. The state, according to KRQE in Albuquerque, claims that the project is supplying irrigation districts in Texas with more water than is legally permitted.

Oklahoma’s water resources agency has authorized its legal representatives to sue to adjudicate water rights in several river basins in the southeastern region of the state, the Oklahoman reports.

Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel has kicked off a 10-year plan to replace 900 miles of water mains, according to Chicago News Cooperative. The city will borrow money and raise rates by 90 percent over the next four years to pay for the public works program.

Water rights in India should be separated from land rights, argues a new report from the public policy arm of India’s leading private-sector infrastructure development company. The full report will be available here.

A judge in Brazil has lifted a construction moratorium on a controversial dam in the Amazon region, the BBC reports. The judge, who halted work at the dam site in September, ruled that the company had proved that construction would not affect the fishing industry downstream from the Belo Monte dam.

The Stream is a daily digest spotting global water trends. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.

Brett Walton

Brett writes about agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and the politics and economics of water in the United States. He also writes the Federal Water Tap, Circle of Blue’s weekly digest of U.S. government water news. He is the winner of two Society of Environmental Journalists reporting awards, one of the top honors in American environmental journalism: first place for explanatory reporting for a series on septic system pollution in the United States(2016) and third place for beat reporting in a small market (2014). He received the Sierra Club’s Distinguished Service Award in 2018. Brett lives in Seattle, where he hikes the mountains and bakes pies. Contact Brett Walton