Journals
Summer 2001 Vol. 41, No. 3
Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act and the Art of Compromise: The Evolution of a Reasonable and Prudent Alternative for the Animas-La Plata Project
Hannah Gosnell
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is responsible for implementing one of the most powerful and controversial environmental statutes in the United States today: Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, which prohibits federal actions likely to further jeopardize a species listed under the Act. Because of a variety of political and institutional constraints, however, the agency has had a difficult time implementing the statute forcefully. After reviewing the Section 7 consultation process and the evolution of the “reasonable and prudent alternative” (RPA) concept, the article takes an in-depth look at the Section 7 consultation process for the proposed Animas-La Plata Project on the San Juan River and at some of the problems surrounding the resulting RPA. Several institutional constraints confronting the FWS are identified, and suggestions are made for strengthening the agency’s position during the Section 7 implementation process.
Integrating ESA Goals into a Larger Context: The Lesson of Animas-La Plata
David J. Hayes
A Commentary on “Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act and the Art of Compromise: The Evolution of a Reasonable and Prudent Alternative for the Animas-La Plata Project” by Hannah Gosnell
The process by which the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service examines whether proposed federal projects satisfy the Endangered Species Act gives the Service considerable power to influence proposed projects. Using the Animas La Plata water project as a case study, however, Hannah Gosnell has suggested that the Fish & Wildlife Service’s institutional limitations reduce its ability to shape federal projects to conform with species protection needs. This author disagrees. The Fish and Wildlife Service can have a profound impact on federal projects through the Section 7 consultation process by identifying issues and species needs that can trigger a serious review of project alternatives. In the case of Animas-La Plata, the Service’s 1991 biological review led to a complete reexamination of the proposed project and a fundamental alteration of the nature and scope of the project in a way that satisfied the Endangered Species Act and other policy imperatives.
A-LP Lite: A Compromise Project that Fulfills the United States’ Trust Responsibility in an Environmentally Responsible Manner.
Stanley M. Pollack and Scott B. McElroy
The development of a “reasonable and prudent” alternative Animas-La Plata project in the Four Corners area represents an appropriate Fish and Wildlife Service consultation under the Endangered Species Act. The process followed by the Service resulted in a smaller project than originally planned. A simple Fish and Wildlife Service opinion that the project jeopardized an endangered species would not have satisfied the Service’s obligation to help find reasonable and prudent alternatives. The scaled-down alternative project was consistent with the federal responsibility to endangered species, other environmental laws, and native tribes.
Institutions and Conjunctive Water Management among Three Western States
William Blomquist, Tanya Heikkila & Edella Schlager
Conjunctive water management involves the coordinated use of ground and surface water supplies. It aims to enhance overall water supplies and guard against drought. In this article, we consider how water governance institutions affect the implementation of conjunctive management. To explain this connection, we present data from a study of conjunctive management in Arizona, California, and Colorado. We discuss how the institutional arrangements across these three states impact the transaction costs and other factors associated with conjunctive management and suggest how different institutional arrangements facilitate or impede conjunctive management.
Economic Exchange as the Requisite Basis for Royalty Ownership of Value Added in Natural-Gas Sales
John Brätland
Gas royalties allow the lessor to capture economic rent (a surplus above all production costs) and to share “risk” with the lessee. However, the lessor owns no economic rent but owns only a percentage of the sales value of the produced gas. The lessor, as a royalty owner, comes into ownership of value added beyond the wellhead only through some explicit or implicit act of exchange. An act of exchange may take the form of deductions for post-production marketing costs or an actual sharing of such costs. But the implied marketing covenant mandates royalties on the value added with no cost deductions or sharing of lessee’s marketing costs. Without acts of exchange accomplished through a sharing of marketing costs, royalties on value added are a breach of property rights and a disincentive to efficient exploration, development, recovery, and marketing of natural gas.
Livestock Ranching and Traditional Culture in Northern New Mexico
Carol Raish & Alice McSweeney
Understanding the contribution and importance of small ranching operations to grazing permittees in northern New Mexico is crucial if land management conflicts and disputes are to be minimized. Much of the debate over federal lands used by grazing permittees seemingly occurs because federal land management agencies have not adequately emphasized and monitored the local sociocultural values and attitudes associated with land use and grazed lands. Thus, this article examines the role and importance of livestock ranching to the primarily Hispano grazing permittees on national forests in northern New Mexico, set within the historical and regional contexts of livestock ranching in the Southwest. The economic, social, and cultural contributions of grazing operations to maintaining traditional culture and ways of life are the focus of discussion while the problems and difficulties related to ranching on public land from the ranchers’ point of view are also presented.
The Nile River: Potential for Conflict and Cooperation in the Face of Water Degradation
Kristin Wiebe
The Nile River has been the source of life and of conflict in the Nile Basin for centuries. Escalating degradation of the river waters has exasperated water scarcity issues in the basin, heightening tensions between riparian countries dependent on this shared freshwater source. The potential for conflict between Nile riparians is real, but recent efforts to construct an inclusive regional agreement to govern the river’s use suggest that riparians will cooperate rather than quarrel over water in the future. This article describes the current state of the Nile River and the link between water degradation and conflict in the Nile Basin. It then considers the applicability of existing international instruments to facilitate cooperation in the Nile Basin. Finally, it discusses the recent Nile Basin Initiative and it’s potential for success in averting future conflict over the Nile waters.
