WSP09398

• File Number: 8507
• Description: Rio Grande Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Rio Grande
• Date: 7/1/1997
• Title: Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin part 3
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

f. '1
.,
~fj

Conclusions and Recommendations

4. Communicate Clearly the Ecological and Economic Implications of
Alternative Resource-Management Decisions

.;.~."

We recommend that federal resource-management agencies redouble their
efforts to communicate clearly with one another, stakeholders, and the
general public. As in any institution with substantive responsibilities, the
agencies in this Basin exhibit a tendency to overlook the importance of
communicating and coordinating with others. More, rather than less,
communication will be required in the future, however, as resource issues
become more complex, public demands for information increase, and
managers shift away from the Progressive bureaucratic model.

.
.(

x.

,'.,

It is especially important that federal agencies communicate clearly on
issues that cut across the spatial and substantive boundaries of non federal
entities. If the agencies adopt an ecosystem-management approach, for
example, they should incorporate an outreach program to explain why they
do so. This program might include forums on the ecological and economic
implications of alternative management policies, discussions of research
findings, and work groups to explore the interface between local concerns
and the broader perspectives of the ecosystem and regional economy. It is
also important that federal agencies communicate on the hydrological,
ecological, and economic uncertainties of the Basin.

f~

'.:-
:+

1'-;

'..'
.)

..:-:

B. Strive to Mitigate or Correct Anticompetitive Factors

.~;

In our discussion of problems (Chapter 3) we identify several factors
restricting the competition for water and related resources and inhibiting the
voluntary flow of resources from low-value to high-value uses. Some of these
factors, such as the public-good character of some goods and services derived
from the resources, are intractable. Others, though, can be mitigated, if not
corrected. Foremost among these are the high transaction costs associated
with efforts to shift resources from one use to another, the existence of
externalities from some uses, and the inertia of resource-management
institutions. Although we recognize that some agencies have been working
on these constraints to competition for some time, and with some notable
successes, we recommend that federal agencies in the Basin do more to offset
these constraints.

~
. ~

-'3'1'-
I". ~

135