I was an attorney in private practice when I had an opportunity to join the newly expanding California Dept. of Fish & Game legal office and specialize in natural resource issues related to the San Francisco Bay & Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Bay-Delta), one of California's thorniest areas of environmental conflict. In larger part, that knowledge led me to becoming the water law and policy expert for the California Assembly, serving as Principal Consultant on the Assembly Water, Parks & Wildlife Committee. While on the Committee, Assemblymember Roger Dickinson asked me to become his lead technical drafter for a new statewide groundwater law. He then partnered with Senator Fran Pavley on a joint effort that became the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act or SGMA, the most significant change to California water law since the Water Commission Act of 1913. Having helped birth SGMA, I left the Legislature for the State Water Resources Control Board, in part to help implement the new law. I am now the lead SGMA attorney at the State Water Board and also continue to specialize in water issues related to the Bay-Delta. In addition, I enjoy teaching Water Law to graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources at the University of California Davis, serving as the Environmental Law Section Representative on the Board of Representatives for the California Lawyers Association, and Co-Chairing the Advisory Board for the California Environmental Law & Policy Center at King Hall, the UC Davis School of Law. In our spare time, my husband Brian and I like to travel, including taking long camping trips in our ultralight trailer, especially with our kids and grandkids.
Work Phone:
916-319-8559
Email:
tinacannonleahy@gmail.com
EPA Region:
Region 9 - (AZ, CA, HI, NV, and certain territories)
Year of induction:
2022
Degrees:
1993 - BA - California State University, Sacramento
1998 - JD - King Hall SOL University of California, Davis
Admissions:
State of California
Professional Societies and Organizations:
California Lawyers Association
California Environmental Law & Policy Center
Association of Women in Water, Energy and Environment
Other Environmental Career Experience:
Water law and policy consultant to the California Assembly, senior staff counsel at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, associate attorney in private practice
Representative Publications:
Desperate Times Call for Sensible Measures The Making of the California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, 9 Golden Gate U. Envtl. L.J. 5 (2016)