Overview

As the policy arm of the Law School’s Environmental Law Clinic, this practicum researches the remedial regime that may follow from injunctive relief of Monterey Coastkeeper’s lawsuit against the Monterey County Water Resources Agency (MCWRA). Represented by the Environmental Law Clinic, the suit asserts that the MCWRA has been polluting both surface and ground waters in the Salinas River Valley and Elkhorn Slough by discharging pesticide-laden farm irrigation run-off in violation of California environmental laws. If the plaintiffs prevail, the appropriate injunctive relief is likely to be complex. Neither the precise dimensions of the pollution problem nor those of the most effective interventions to remedy it are known. So, ideally, relief should combine adaptive flexibility for the agency, meaningful accountability to the plaintiffs and the public, and an opportunity for all parties to learn in the process of the implementation. Students will work with Professors Deborah Sivas (lead plaintiffs’ counsel) and William Simon to produce an advisory report on aspects of a possible remedial regime.