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• Got Water ( August 2003 )
  Eric A. Kremer and David A. Hepler of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

  Early California settlers knew that a stable water supply was one of the most important components of any new settlement. They also found that water was often a scarce commodity in the West. Battles over available water resources were not uncommon among competing users, and, as a result, water law in California is one of the most detailed and complex bodies of jurisprudence in the United States. Recent legislation marks the beginning of yet another chapter of water law in California. The new legislation reflects the historical tension between two competing forces: the need for new housing as California's population grows, and the scarcity of adequate water supplies in many of the places where new communities are springing up (no pun intended).

• Coordinating Efforts to Secure American Public Water Supplies ( March 2002 )
  Timothy J. De Young of Modrall Sperling

  Recent media reports claim that Taliban forces in Afghanistan, employing a warfare tactic used in ancient Rome, placed dead animals in community wells to pollute the water supplies of recalcitrant villages. Closer to home and months before the September 11 attacks, the FBI alerted water utilities across the nation that it had received a signed threat, later determined to be a hoax, that an identified terrorist group intended to disrupt water operations in twenty-eight U.S. cities.

• Water-Related Projects: Catching The Wave ( April 1999 )
  Robert L. Vitale of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

  The recent efforts of France's Vivendi SA to acquire U.S. Filter Corp in a multi-billion dollar transaction, as well as the announced spin-off of Enron Corp.'s Azurix, made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic as harbingers of increased competition and interest in the U.S. water and wastewater markets.