Water Law in the Colorado River Basin: Past, Present, and Future

DERRICK BEETSO is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and serves as director of the Indian Gaming and Tribal Self-Governance Programs and professor of practice at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Prior to this role, Beetso served as general counsel to the National Congress of American Indians and as attorney-advisor to the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ western regional office within the Department of the Interior’s Office of the Solicitor in Phoenix, AZ.

RICHARD MORRISON is a retired lawyer and commentator on water policy. 

In law, Richard was a natural resources lawyer (principally water law), lobbyist, and educator. He continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor in the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, where he also endowed the Richard Morrison Professor of Water Law.

In civic life, Richard is a Co-Founder of the Morrison Institute of Public Policy at Arizona State University and a founding board member (eventually President) of the C.W. and Modene Neely Charitable Foundation. 

In 2021 Richard founded the Institute for Public and Professional Ethics in Leadership at Northern Arizona University.

KATHRYN SORENSEN served for many years as Director of Phoenix Water Services as well as Director of the City of Mesa Water Resources Department. In these roles she was responsible for the delivery of safe, clean, reliable water for millions of Arizonans, and significantly advanced the sustainable management of water resources in Arizona and the Colorado River basin. Kathryn earned a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from Texas A&M University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Michigan. In her position at Arizona State University, she oversees the research efforts of the Kyl Center for Water Policy, serves as a Professor of Practice at the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions, and as a Senior Global Futures Scientist at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. Kathryn is a member of the Colorado River Research Group.

Moderated by RHETT LARSON, the Richard Morrison Professor of Water Law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. He is also a senior research fellow with the Kyl Center for Water Policy at ASU’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy. 

Professor Larson’s research focuses on the impact of technological innovation on water rights regimes, in particularly transboundary waters, and on the sustainability implications of a human right to water. He works on dispute resolution and improved processes in water rights adjudications in Arizona and the Colorado River Basin with the Kyl Center for Water Policy. He is the author of Just Add Water: Solving the World’s Problems Using its Most Precious Resource (Oxford University Press, 2020). He received a Juris Doctorate from the University of Chicago and a Masters of Science from Oxford University.