Dividing the Waters

Past Conferences

Materials from past conferences are available to judges on request. Please email Joy Lyngar for more information.

2024 Annual ConferenceThe Great Salt Lake: A Case Study of One of the West’s Emerging Conflicts Over the Use of Water

The Lake’s watershed stretches north to Logan, south to Provo, and east into the mountains of the Wasatch Front. Like other “terminal lakes” in the Great Basin, upstream water diversions for farms and cities have led to the Lake shrinking. Join Dividing the Waters for its next amazing conference on water including the Friday field trip to the Great Salt Lake.
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Participants will learn how to evaluate the scientific, technical and legal issues that arise in litigation over the use of water during a drought. At the conclusion of the conference, the participants will be better prepared to make reasoned and thoughtful decisions about the use of critical water resources.

Distinguished Faculty: The faculty will consist of scientists, water administrators, water lawyers and judges with wide-ranging experience in water litigation and management in the Western United States

Participants will be responsible for their own travel and lodging.

2022 Dividing the Waters Conference
The Colorado River: Is the Law of the River Relevant to the Emerging Crisis?

Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2022 | Santa Fe, NM

With extreme drought bearing down on the Colorado River, this year’s Dividing the Waters conference will use this Basin as a case study to provide judges the knowledge and tools that they can use in their own watershed. Panels will address the “Law of the River,” its hydrology, history, and the conflicts in the Lower and Upper Colorado River Basin.

Join us in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 100 years after delegates from the seven Colorado River Basin states met to work out the Colorado River Compact. We will tour the Palace of the Governors, where the Compact was signed on November 24, 1922.

Conference attendees will participate in a field trip hosted by Utton Center, University of New Mexico Law School, and visit these important sites:
– Cochiti Dam and Pueblo de Cochiti,
– Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Authority’s San Juan Chama Drinking Water Project, including Adjustable Diversion Dam and Intake Structure, Raw Water Pumping Station and Water Treatment Plant
– Bear Canyon Groundwater Recharge Project

Participants will learn how to evaluate the scientific, technical and legal issues that arise in litigation over the use of water during a drought. At the conclusion of the conference, the participants will be better prepared to make reasoned and thoughtful decisions about the use of critical water resources.

Conference Fee Includes: Opening reception, three breakfasts, two lunches, and group dinner.

Dividing the Waters, a program of the National Judicial College, provides training, informational resources and collaborative learning opportunities for judges, special masters and administrative hearing officers who preside over litigation concerning the use of water.

2019 Sustainable Water Rights in Drought

April 10 – 13, 2019 | Stanford Law School | Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

Conferees considered how the law impacts our ability to manage water in sustainable ways during times of shortage. The faculty included a mix of judges, academics, and water rights administrators. The conference featured a field trip to the Monterey Peninsula, where several “on the ground” projects addressed the consequences of a long-standing water shortage.

2017 Groundwater Law in Transition

November 1 – 4, 2017 | Baylor University School of Law | Waco, Texas

This 2.5-day conference prepared judicial officers for adjudicating and resolving groundwater conflicts. The faculty, comprised of scientists and judges, focusing on the enduring and emerging conflicts over groundwater in Texas and across the West. As surface water has become fully committed, farms and growing communities have turned to groundwater, leading to conflicts over water as well as land-use.

2015 Established Water Rights and Changing Conditions

October 14-17, 2015 | Gonzaga University School of Law | Spokane, Washington

At the 2015 Dividing the Waters conference in Spokane, Washington, judicial officers heard testimony and made judgments about a water/salmon dispute in the hypothetical “Justice River Basin.”

2014

Changing Land, Changing Water
May 14-17, 2014, University of Oregon School of Law, Eugene, OR

2013

Judges and the Science of Instream Flow
October 17-18, 2013, The National Judicial College, Reno, NV

2012

Fracking and Water Resources
November 8-9, 2012, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Making the Connection: Surface and Groundwater
October 17-20, 2012, University of California, Davis King Hall School of Law

2011

Crossing the Ag-Urban Divide
October 9-12, 2011, Reno, NV
10 federal judges, 2 Supreme Court Masters

2010

The Impact of Water: Adjudication Along America’s Longest River
November 3-6, 2010, St. Louis, Missouri
26 participants, 17 states, 11 federal judges

2009

Fundamentals of Water Law Adjudication Course
Science for Judges Workshop: Taking Climate Change into Account
November 11-12, 2009, Reno, NV
36 participants, 20 states, 17 federal judges, 1 U.S. Supreme Court Master

El Paso, Texas
37 participants, 9 states, 2 U.S. Supreme Court Masters

2007

Science for Judges Workshop
November 11-13, 2007, La Jolla, California
27 participants, 6 states

Science for Judges Workshop
May 13-15, 2007, Boulder, Colorado
26 participants, 8 states

2006

Science for Judges Workshop
March 12-14, 2006, Santa Fe, New Mexico
23 participants, 9 states

2005

Jackson Hole, Wyoming
June 8-11, 2005
55 participants, 11 states, 3 U.S. Supreme Court Masters

2004

Science for Judges Workshop
October 7-9, 2004, Seattle, Washington
32 participants, 11 states, 3 U.S. Supreme Court Masters

Upcoming Conferences

Past Webinars

Recordings