Research Reports

This report (1) details the impact that water quantity law and practice has had on water quality, and likewise water quality rules on water quantity management; (2) analyzes the legal authorities of states and the federal government over water quantity and quality, respectively, and briefly recaps the current state of takings law relevant to appropriative rights and the Clean Water Act; and (3) identifies laws, policies, government structures, and other factors that can advance relationships between, and ultimately the outcomes for, water quality and quantity management.

ELI has published a guidebook designed to help communities in Liberia develop and implement projects using funds from the National Benefit-Sharing Trust, an entity created by Liberia’s National Forestry Reform Law (NFRL) of 2006. Under the Trust, revenues from the country’s forest sector may be used to help communities develop according to their own priorities. The Trust collects a share of funds from the land rental fees that timber companies must pay the government and sets them aside for communities who are affected by commercial forestry activities.

This ELI report recommends that large-scale commodity crop operations that opt to receive any form of federal farm subsidy, including subsidized crop insurance, be assigned responsibility for: putting in place basic measures to reduce water pollution from fertilizer runoff; and disclosing information to the public about the quantity, type, and timing of fertilizers they apply. Runoff from the production of major commodity crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat can contribute significantly to downstream water pollution.

Radon is a radioactive gas that can accumulate indoors when it enters buildings from the soil and rock below. Indoor exposure to radon is responsible for about 21,000 lung cancer deaths in the United States each year. Fortunately, it is relatively easy to test for radon, and there are well-established techniques for reducing elevated radon levels.