Faculty Speaker Series: California Drought: Lessons Learned and Not

​The water year 2014-2015 has capped a four-year drought unprecedented in California history.  Of equal significance, California’s expanded and realigned water use into new hardened demands of urban development and orchard crops has created man-made tragedy as great as that imposed by nature.  Nonetheless, California has responded with two promising developments:  a multi-billion dollar investment by California voters in water infratructure and practices, and enactment of the first statewide groundwater regulation in California’s 164-year history. This discussion will evaluate present conditions and address changes still needed to secure California’s water future into the next generation.

Antonio Rossmann has served in the past 40 years as chief counsel in some of California’s and the West’s leading water and land-use proceedings.  In 2010 the Los Angeles Daily Journal named Mr. Rossmann as one of the Top 100 California Attorneys.  An honors graduate of Harvard College (1963) and Harvard Law School (1971) and former editor of the Harvard Law Review, Mr. Rossmann has taught water resources, land use, and constitutional law for 34 years, since 1991 at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall, and previously at Stanford, Hastings, UCLA, and as Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Tokyo.  In 2012-2013 Mr. Rossmann served as a consultant on water resources law to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome.

​This event is part of the 2015 Fall Faculty Speaker Series.  Light refreshments will be served.