Contact: Denise Fort, 277-1094 Media Contact: Laurie Mellas-Ramirez, 277-5915

September 6, 2002 LAW PROFESSOR MAKES WAVES TO IMPROVE WATER POLICY University of New Mexico Professor of Law Denise Fort is making waves to improve America's water policy. Former Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission chair, a presidential appointment, Fort is active with the National Resource Council (NRC), an arm of the National Academy of Sciences. Congress recently charged the NRC with writing a report to examine whether an outside agency is needed to review practices of the Army Corps of Engineers, an agency under fire from environmental groups. "Our panel went on to say, 'Yes, the Corps should be subject to a peer review,'" says Fort, who specializes in environmental and natural resources law. More fundamentally, Fort questions whether the plethora of federal agencies concerned with water is justifiable. Not enough top-level government officials are taking a serious look at consolidating efforts, she says. "There are very few academic critics working on this aspect of water policy," she adds. Fort directed the State of New Mexico Environmental Improvement Division in the mid 1980s and later served as executive director for California's Citizens for a Better Environment and a consultant for the Natural Heritage Institute. Fort came to UNM in 1987 as a research associate and visiting scholar at the Institute of Public Policy and School of Law. She designed and taught a course in political science and women studies on contemporary state policy issues. In spring 1991, she became a visiting assistant professor in the School of Architecture and Planning where she taught graduate level courses in regional planning, water planning and development, and environmental law. In the fall, she joined the law school as assistant professor and director of the Water Resources Program, which she ran until 1996. In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed her to a three-year term as chair of the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission. Its mission was to review the role of federal government in western water and issue a final report. A full professor since 1998, Fort recently founded the Western Water Alliance, an interdisciplinary citizens group working together to create change. "We have representatives from environmental groups, Native American organizations, and those who just love rivers," she says. "We want to become active nationally." Most policy decisions regarding environmental issues are at a federal level, Fort notes. "We don't have state laws that protect species and ecosystems. And really there is no comprehensive federal water policy. Decisions are made basin by basin," she explains. Nearly one-half the planet lives without adequate water resources, Fort says. Loss of species, global warming and ozone depletion are Mother Nature's cries for help. "We don't have a grasp on what is coming and what is already underway," she says. To understand water policy and law one must understand science, economics, international studies, history and other disciplines. UNM law students interested in natural resources are encouraged to venture to main campus for a variety of coursework. "No education is complete without an understanding of the environmental crisis and what has to be done about it," says Fort, who is working with others to reshape the law school's natural resources courses. Students who take on the world of natural resources law can join Fort in the fight for new laws that permit change for better water management, use and conservation. "I do tend to see the world through the eyes of water," Fort notes. ###

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