Overview of Services
Our lawyers have decades of experience representing individuals, private companies, and governmental agencies in water rights and water resource issues. Our clients include ranchers, farmers, developers, urban water suppliers, and irrigation and reclamation districts in California, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, and Nevada. We have also participated in the adjudication of water rights before administrative agencies and in state and federal courts in several western states. We have worked with federal water masters under existing federal river decrees, and litigated these issues in federal and state courts in several western states.
Our attorneys are knowledgeable, creative and hardworking. Whenever possible, we seek solutions to problems that will avoid disputes and litigation. When necessary, we are prepared to be tenacious advocates for our clients, bringing to bear our extensive experience in trial and appellate courts.
Project Experience
- Surface water diversions, including fish screens
- Surface water reservoirs, including fish passage facilities
- Hydroelectric power generation
- Groundwater extraction
- Large scale groundwater appropriation and interbasin transfer projects
- Conjunctive use programs, including groundwater recharge with both native and imported water
- Banking arrangements in off-site groundwater storage
- Recycled water acquisition, transmission and distribution
- Desalination of brackish groundwater
- Water treatment plants
- Water transfers
Agency Interactions
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
- U.S. Bureau of Land Management
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service
- U.S. Forest Service
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- NOAA Fisheries
- National Park Service
- California State Water Resources Control Board
- California Department of Water Resources
- California Coastal Commission
- Regional Water Quality Control Boards
- Counties and Cities
Water Supply Agency Services
- Safe Drinking Water Act compliance
- Endangered Species Act
- Wetlands delineation and protection
- Dredge and fill Permits under the federal Clean Water Act
- Urban water management plans preparation
- Groundwater management plans
- Water Supply Assessments (under SB 610).
- Water conservation measures and rationing ordinances
- Rate structure design
- Wholesale-retail water supply contracts
Key Contacts
News & Resources
What Redefining “Waters of the United States” Under Clean Water Act, Again, Means for California
The Biden Administration changes—yet again—which waters the Clean Water Act regulates. But that change impacts California differently than other states.
Hanson Bridgett Strengthens Water Law Bench
November 17, 2022 (Sacramento, CA) — Hanson Bridgett LLP is pleased to announce that David Cameron has joined the firm's Sacramento office as a partner in the Government Section and the Water Law Practice Group.
State Water Board Lacks Power to Curtail Pre-1914 Water Rights under Water Code, § 1052(a)
A California Court of Appeal held that the State Water Board lacks authority to curtail valid pre-1914 appropriative water rights holders from diverting water
The Biden Administration Proposes Changing the Water Quality Certification Review Process for Federally Permitted Projects
The U.S. EPA proposed a new rule under the Clean Water Act reversing the Trump Administration’s rule
Inadequate Government Claims Act Notice Sinks Proposition 218 Water Rate Challenge
The Plata v. City of San Jose court decision found that the late charges were not governed by Proposition 218.
Army Corps Finalizes New Clean Water Act Nationwide Permits That May Benefit Infrastructure Projects
US Army Corps of Engineers finalized a rule renewing nationwide permits under the Clean Water Act for projects involving discharges of dredge or fill material to jurisdictional waters
New Law Protects Water/Wastewater Sector by Limiting Rate Challenges
SB 323 reduces water and sewer agencies' exposure to lawsuits brought up to a decade after their rates were adopted, increasing budgetary certainty and rate stability.
Ninth Circuit Upholds 'Significant Nexus' Test for Federal Permitting of Wetlands Projects
While agencies and courts continue to shift federal jurisdiction over wetlands, California’s State Wetlands Procedures are ready to fill regulatory gaps that may result from those changes.
Court of Appeal Finds Overlying Correlative Rights Do Not Have to Share Equally in Water Shortages
Court of Appeal upholds the 'physical solution' for the Antelope Valley groundwater adjudication, which subordinates certain overlying water right holders to other beneficial users.
Supreme Court Rules Referendum Process Cannot Be Used to Challenge Water Rates
The Supreme Court overruled the Court of Appeals and found that municipal water rates fall within the broad understanding of a tax, in Wilde v. City of Dunsmuir.