Environmental

Throughout the United States, and especially in the desert Southwest, ensuring proper authority to pump or divert water can be critical to a client's contemplated development. Commercial construction, renewable energy development, residential subdivisions and golf courses, farming operations, mining and more all demand compliance with applicable water use regulations. Quarles & Brady has been successful in helping clients navigate these issues so that projects are not derailed by unanticipated water rights and permitting issues. Our particular focus on the acquisition, proper maintenance and conveyance of water rights and permits under the Arizona Groundwater Code has given our Arizona attorneys the reputation and experience that can directly benefit your business.

While we always recommend putting water rights and permits at the forefront of your development planning, if complexities emerge once a project is underway, there are many ways we can help to untangle the issues. We also advise clients in responding to notices of violation and in other compliance efforts under state water law. We are frequently involved in due diligence investigations for real property transactions, ensuring proper conveyance of related water rights and sometimes discovering water rights a party did not know it had. Our practice has attracted former regulators and policy makers who have unparalleled familiarity with water law as applied in the real world.

Representative Engagements / Experience:

• Determining the status of water rights, wells, and withdrawal authority in transactional due diligence, and ensuring proper conveyances of water rights upon real property transfers.
  
  
• Arranging and drawing up agreements for the purchase or lease of water rights as needed to support diverse commercial and residential development projects.
  
  
• Assisting clients in achieving compliance with water use reporting requirements, responding to notices of violation and handling the intricacies of local water law, especially in Arizona, where water use is often heavily regulated.
  
  
• Coordinating successful applications for certificates of assured water supply in complex situations.
  
  
• Filing surface water right claims in the ongoing Gila River and Little Colorado River system water right adjudications.
  
  
• Assessing the potential impacts to clients of proposed water rights settlements with Indian tribes.

For more information on how our Environmental Group can help you address potential or actual environment-related legal and business concerns, please contact Arthur A. Vogel Jr. at (414) 277-5545 or , or your local Quarles & Brady attorney.