Groundwater law

Abstract

This chapter reviews fundamental legal principles relating to groundwater quantity and quality in the United States, Australia and the European Union. It also examines legal approaches to three key “integration” challenges in groundwater law, which arise in relation to many of these foundational principles. First, groundwater law must deal with the relationship between groundwater and surface water-specifically, how abstraction of one should be controlled due to impacts on the other. A second and related challenge is making legal provision for integrating groundwater with its environment, that is, making legal provision for ecological water requirements. Finally, legal frameworks face the significant challenge of dealing with groundwater management in the cross-boundary context. By comparing and contrasting approaches to common and burgeoning legal challenges across different regions, this chapter seeks to highlight the key issues that regulators and groundwater users must consider and confront in dealing with them, and a range of potential legal solutions.