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

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Conclusions and Recommendations

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C. Clarify Federal Interests in the Basin's Water and Related
Resources

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We recommend that the federal resource-management agencies initiate
meaningful steps to clarify the federal interests in the Basin's water and
related resources. There is widespread uncertainty about what the federal
interests are. Many believe that, because these resources, with some notable
exceptions, are private property or subject to state regulatory authority, the
federal government has no interest whatsoever. Others believe that federal
agencies have inappropriately failed to protect interests that inherently
belong to all Americans-by not meeting the stewardship responsibilities as
managers offederallands, for example-or to specific groups, such as the
Pueblos. Still others have concluded that there is a fundamental disconnect
between conventional views of the federal interest in the Basin's resources,
on the one hand, and the Basin's ecological and economic realities, on the
other. All groups appear frustrated by the ambiguity over federal interests.

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Whatever view one takes ofthe federal interests in the Basin's resources,
further clarification of these interests would help federal, state, local, and
private resource managers better understand the full complement of
competing demands for these resources. As a general matter, there are at
least five categories of federal interest in the Basin's resources: stewardship,
corporate, Pueblo trust responsibilities, economic-welfare, and public-
participation.' Stewardship interests arise whenever the federal government
acts as agents for citizens regarding the management of resources belonging
to all of us. Each agency has a corporate interest in managing its assets
(dams, refuges, etc.) for the benefit of citizen shareholders. Pueblo trust
responsibilities stem from the federal government's obligations to provide for
the welfare of Pueblo members and to manage Pueblo assets, including the
claim to water and other resources. The federal government's economic
interest in the resources arises from its responsibility to promote the general
welfare of all Americans and, hence, to promote the highest-value and most
fair resource uses. Federal interest in public participation and open
government is associated with the national goal of promoting democracy and
a fully representative form of government insofar as they apply to
resource-management issues.

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7 Here and elsewhere. our discussion of federal interest comes from the perspective of
economic policy analysis. We make no pretense of representing legal or other perspectives of
the matter.

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