Doug Kenney, Ph'D', Univ' of Colorado

1
Voluntary Mechanisms for Coping with Water
Scarcity Managing Conflict

• Doug Kenney, Ph.D., Univ. of Colorado
• Natural Resources Law Center, Western
• Water Policy Program
• CU-NOAA Western Water Assessment
• Douglas.kenney_at_colorado.edu

Canberra, Australia 17 November, 2008
Australian National University
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Western USA
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Water Scarcity Coping Mechanisms in the Western
USA Feature an Emphasis On

• Drought-proofing systems
• (rather than focusing on coping
• or response strategies)
• Supply-side solutions
• Voluntary collaborative solutions

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In These Water Scarcity Coping Exercises

• Hydrologic boundaries are largely irrelevant the
  physical scales that matter are state boundaries
  and the physical boundaries of built water
  systems (Central thesis)
• Example / llustration Water Transfers

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Water Allocation Between States

• Roughly 2 dozen interstate compacts in the West
• Designed to reserve water in perpetuity
• Water allocated to entire state (not just the
  area within the hydrologic basin)

Impact on Scale Compacts can make river basins
irrelevant for management compacts eliminate
the need for one state to be concerned with water
issues in the others
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Water Allocation Within States

• Water allocated as private property rights
• Seniority system no proportional sharing
• Permanent allocations
• Many streams fully allocated (no water reserved
  for the environment)
• Voluntary transfers within states only (no
  interstate transfers)
• Impact on Scale The presence/absence of
  hydrologic boundaries within a state is irrelevant

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Small Watersheds (catchments)

• Voluntary watershed councils are common
• Councils enjoy high political (and cultural)
  support
• Almost none deal with scarcity issues or drought
  coping

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Salient USA/MDB Differences Regarding Water
Transfers

• At what physical scales can water be transferred?
• Interstate or intrastate
• What limits exist on the amount (or rate) of
  water that can be transferred from a given
  region?
• The 4 rule
• What is the purpose of transfers?
• Environment, sustainability new growth, increase
  reliability
• Are transfers part of a deliberate plan or are
  they ad hoc (driven only by the invisible hand
  of the market)?
• What role does the federal government play?
• How are impacts to rural economies mitigated?
  Adjustments? Incentives?

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Some Conclusions

• In the western US, institutional factors (e.g.,
  water allocation rules) are a major impediment to
  basin-scale watershed-scale management
  regarding water scarcity
• In the western US, the emphasis on permanent
  private property rights and permanent interstate
  allocations limits opportunities for deliberate
  reform reallocation is ad hoc and market-driven
  (and confined within states)
• Institutional factors influence the relevance and
  utility of technical information associated with
  various scales
• THUS The prospects for sustainable, basin-wide
  water management seem greater in the MDB than in
  western US basins

-- Thank You --