Jamie Carpenter, a 2L at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, has been selected to present her paper titled “FERC and the Fifth, are the Feds taking private water rights when relicensing hydropower dams in Utah?” at the 5th Annual J. Paul Riley American Water Resources Association-Utah Student Conference and Scholarship Competition on April 8, 2010.
“I became interested in the topic when I learned that Hyrum City and Garkane Cooperative Inc, both from Utah, had lost as much as 21% of their clean energy production capacity when they relicensed their hydroelectric power plants. As part of the permit and relicense requirements, FERC [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] required a portion of Hyrum’s and Garkane’s water right be used for purposes of fish habitat and instream flows,” she said. “According to my research, FERC lacks the authority to implement instream flows through land use permits, and these requirements should be held invalid under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.”
Jamie is grateful to the College of Law’s Professor John Martinez for providing her with the relevant materials while studying takings in his Property class.
Prior to attending law school, Jamie was in charge of water rights and water quality for the City of St. George Utah and before this, she worked as a chief operator at the Quail Creek Drinking Water Plant.