When
Monday, November 16, 2026, at 10:00 a.m.
Stephanie M. Stern
Desmond and Jean Ruley Kearns Professor of Law
Co-Director of the Environmental Law Program
University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
"Unintended Pollution: How Water Quantity Law Shapes Western Air and Water Quality"
Harshbarger 118A-A1
ABSTRACT
The federal government just cut the Lower Basin states' Colorado River shares, and the cascading effects on air and water quality are only beginning. As cities and farms turn to groundwater, heavier pumping can concentrate arsenic, draw shallow contamination down into drinking-water aquifers and pull pollution plumes toward wells. Federally funded fallowing saves water but leaves bare soil exposed to wind, sending dust and toxins into the air. And as farms curtail water use, less runoff reaches places like the Salton Sea, whose receding shoreline exposes lakebed dust laced with salts and selenium. In this talk, I examine why environmental law often fails to anticipate or correct the pollution arising from water conservation. Part of the answer is structural: the law regulates air, water quantity, water quality and waste in separate silos, while scientists and engineers study connected systems. I advocate for science to continue to move a step ahead of law: clarifying how water quantity and quality are linked, measuring and mitigating the pollution that conservation creates and, ultimately, shaping future policy.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Stephanie M. Stern is the Desmond and Jean Ruley Kearns professor of law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, where she teaches and writes on water, environmental and climate adaptation law. Her research examines how law can promote flood and drought resilience, integrate climate risk into land use and zoning, and address deep uncertainty in water and other environmental decision-making. Before entering academia, Stern practiced law at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, served as a fellow at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and clerked for Judge Kermit Lipez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. She is a graduate of Yale Law School.