As an associate with the Nossaman LLP law firm, Pacific Council member Ms. Tara Paul focuses her practice on water rights and represents clients such as public agencies and investor-owned utilities in complex water rights litigation. She is a member of the Water Practice Group and also provides legal counseling and advice to public agencies regarding regulatory compliance, including issues related to the Brown Act, the Public Records Act, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, and the California Environmental Quality Act.

Prior to joining Nossaman, Paul served as a clerk with the 5th District of the California Court of Appeal. She was also awarded a Fellowship at the University of Cambridge Lauterpacht Centre for International Law where she researched the role of natural resources laws in post-conflict countries. She has been a member of the Pacific Council since June 2017.

Paul recently spoke to the Pacific Council about regional water issues.

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Pacific Council: How did you become interested in water issues?

Tara Paul: Most of what my practice entails is water rights litigation, primarily for public agencies in California such water districts and irrigation districts. I represent them in litigation, often over groundwater rights. I got into it partially because after law school I started thinking I’d like to do something in the area of public natural resources law. Because I’m from California, where water scarcity and water issues have always been a hot topic, I thought water was a good place for me to put my skills. Also, through the course of law school I focused a lot on water as a human right and worked on a lot of water issues, so it became a theme. Then luckily I found a job here in LA doing it.

How can the Pacific Council leverage its Global Water Scarcity Project to have impact in the water space?

By facilitating the discussion on water scarcity, creating opportunities for information exchange, and steering the conversation toward sustainable management. That’s one facet of talking about water as an issue. It would also be useful to look at how things are being done in other parts of the world, and thinking about how that can be used in California. Those kinds of conversations are important to be having and looking into.

Who are the main stakeholders for water rights in Southern California? 

People. Farmers, Native Americans, even the environment is a stakeholder, of course. Those are the big ones; that’s where you see how the law is structured, around those interests. It’s so interesting how water is used for everything. It’s such an essential resource. It touches everything.

In your opinion, what sort of water infrastructure should Southern California be investing in or improving? 

I’ll put it this way: when you look at what’s happening in Cape Town for instance, one of the broad lessons to take away from that is how important it is to diversify your water resources. Where is your water coming from? For California, it’s groundwater, it’s snowfall, it’s also starting to include desalination projects. But the other big topic right now is how to generate new sources of water, whether that’s recycling dirty water, cleaning it, reusing for different purposes, capturing stormwater, starting to think about how we manage it and how we can use technology to improve what we’ve got and put it to different uses.

How do you expect water politics between Northern California, the Central Valley, and Southern California to play out in the next round of state-wide elections? 2020? Beyond?

It’s a “wait and see” situation right now. It will be interesting to see how the Delta Tunnel Project plays out. It’s hard to say, because there’s a lot of politics involved in the Central Valley, which is a big stakeholder in that project, and they have very strong views on how it should go forward, whether it should go forward, and who should have the water. It depends on where the political will is in the next gubernatorial administration, and how much water we have between now and then in terms of precipitation. 

What city is at risk of becoming the next Cape Town?

It's traditionally always been the water stressed regions: California, the U.S. southwest, Australia, the Middle East. It’s pretty easy to guess where the next drought could have serious consequences. Australia has done a lot to revise the way the law treats water rights, in a way that is intended to at least minimize the potential political contentions and better control water in instances when you have major drought. Whether or not it has worked well, you’d have to ask an expert in Australia’s water law, but they’ve also been very forward-thinking in terms of desalination and some of these other water initiatives, so they’re one place to look to for an example.

Desalination is an energy intensive process. Do you think the need for water outweighs those energy concerns?

People need water. Municipalities need water. That’s really who the desalination projects are intended to serve. It relieves some of the stress on other water users. But California is becoming more conscious about sustainable use. For instance, during the drought when the governor issued that mandate that the state reduce its water consumption by 25 percent, we ended up seeing a huge reduction in energy use as a consequence. So the state almost met the goal, and then at the same time we had the extra benefit of reducing energy as well. How we’re consuming energy is a really important thing to think about in this context. How do we find the balance? It’s complicated, and it’s hard, but people do need water.

How can people get involved? What are some good organizations in this space?

The Water Education Foundation is a good source for water issues. So is the Association of California Water Agencies. They have a good sense of what issues are out there and what’s happening. Our firm Nossaman also publishes regular newsletters about recent cases, so we’re a great one to follow as well.

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Get in touch with Tara if you're interested in learning more about her work or being part of the water conversation by emailing us at engage@pacificcouncil.org.

Learn more about the Pacific Council’s Global Water Scarcity Project.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.