In this compelling interview from the South Atlantic Drilling Jubilee, Brock Yordy sits down with Jesse Richardson, a prominent legal scholar and water advocate, to delve into pressing issues affecting the water well and drilling industries. Richardson, a professor at West Virginia University College of Law and legal advisor for the Water Systems Council, shares his insights on significant legal battles, such as the Texas vs. New Mexico water rights case, and the controversial topic of mandatory hookups to public water systems.
Watch the full newscast interview! Jesse, introduce yourself and what you do, and then we'll get into some hot-button topics. So, I work on water rights and water issues all across the country. Did you think this is what you would be doing with your career right now? I did not. It all kind of happened by accident. I was practicing law in my hometown of Winchester, Virginia when the widow of a former law partner contacted me and had a water problem.
It was a really high-visibility case, and, you know, I represented her, and it was like a set of dominoes falling, and here I am. So now, at West Virginia University, you see a lot of young professionals getting into environmental and water science and wondering how this has picked up over the years and the importance of what we do day to day for litigation.
It's been amazing. Water has always been a hot issue in the West, but in the East, when I had this case 30 years ago, I couldn't get anybody at the State Department of the Environment to pay attention to me.
Now, a lot of young people are interested in it. States are regulating it more in the East. Water is much more scarce in the East than it used to be, and the demands were higher when you did that first case. The drilling and water industries did what they always do: grab you and bring you into something.
