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Nell Green Nylen on Allocating Water in Times of Scarcity

Join us for a presentation by Dr. Nell Green Nylen, Senior Research Fellow with the Wheeler Water Institute at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, who will talk about how water rights, other legal requirements and policy priorities, and management tools like water markets affect access to water in California.  She will also share recommendations for actions the state could take to strengthen its capacity to fairly and effectively allocate water in times of scarcity.  

Why is it important for the state to take these steps now, when we’re not feeling the pinch of drought?  Although it is tempting to push planning for water scarcity to the back burner when water is temporarily abundant, California does not have this luxury. The state’s water management challenges during wet and dry times interrelate, and are intensifying as climate change exacerbates precipitation variability, supercharging California’s wet and dry extremes and the whiplash between them.*

This discussion will take place from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 13, online only through Zoom. The event is free and everyone is encouraged to attend.

Dr. Green Nylen is a Senior Research Fellow with the Wheeler Water Institute at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE). Her research seeks to improve water governance by engaging law, science, and policy to inform decision making about critical water issues. Her recent work at CLEE has focused on developing guidance for implementing California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, improving California water rights administration and oversight during droughts, examining the relationships between regulation and innovation in the U.S. wastewater sector, and improving policy options for expanding safe drinking water access and affordability in California.  She earned a J.D. with a certificate of specialization in Environmental Law from Berkeley Law. and a Ph.D. in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford, where her dissertation research examined past climatic and environmental change along the Northern California coast.   

* Read more about the issues in Legal Planet.