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Some Legal Problems of Urban Runoff

From the Proceedings of the 1972 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - May 5-6, 1972, Prescott, Arizona / Pressure is being brought to bear on national resources of air, earth, and water in the growing cities in the arid southwest. Legal questions involved in capturing urban runoff and putting it to a beneficial use are examined. Urbanization of a watershed results in a 3 to 5 fold increase in runoff amounts. Legal aspects include tort liability from floods, water rights to the increased flows, land use restrictions along banks and flood plains, condemnation of land for park development and flowage easements, financing problems, zoning applications, and coordination of governmental bodies responsible for parks, storm drainage and related services. Urban runoff is the most obvious legal problem in the tort liability area. It appears feasible to divert small quantities of water from urban wastes for recreational uses which provide flood control benefits. It appears that municipalities could appropriate increased flows caused by urbanization. The ultimate legal questions remain to be resolved by legislation, litigation or extension of the appropriative system.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/300161
Date06 May 1972
CreatorsHolub, Hugh
ContributorsCollege of Law, University of Arizona, Tucson
PublisherArizona-Nevada Academy of Science
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Proceedings
RightsCopyright ©, where appropriate, is held by the author.

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