WSP11716

• 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 1
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Executive Summary

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do not. Water-related recreational opportunities and aesthetics are
important elements of the quality oflife in the Basin, where economic
activity is concentrated near the narrow ribbon of water flowing through the
desert.

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Throughout the report, we. use the term "value" to mean more than just
price. We take a broad view of the term, employing it to refer not just to
goods and services associated with the Basin's water and related resources
that are measured in monetary terms, such as bales of hay produced from
irrigated fields, but also to those that are not measured in monetary terms,
such as recreational opportunities, protection of endangered species, and
maintenance of cultural traditions. Consistent with this approach, we also
employ the term "use" to refer both to conventional uses associated with
physical manipulation of the Basin's water and related resources, such as
withdrawing water from a stream for irrigation, and to more passive or
nonquantifiable uses, such as dilution of pollutants or maintaining riparian
habitat. We recognize that individuals have multiple perspectives on the
"values" and "uses" associated with the Basin's resources. These multiple
perspectives give support to a central message of the report-the competition
for the resources is complex.

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Much of the water in the Basin is not being used in the manner that would
generate the bundle of goods and services with the greatest value or the
highest levels of jobs, incomes, and standards ofliving. The prices of water
and related resources generally do not reflect these resources' scarcity and,
hence, resources often are put to a low-value use while other uses with a
higher value go unsatisfied. Much ofthe water used at the economic margin
for irrigation yields crops whose value is less than the cost of growing them.
The fundamental legal and institutional structure overseeing water uses
tends to favor agricultural and other diversionary uses, however, and does
not facilitate voluntary transactions that would release resources from
low-value uses and direct them toward high-value ones.

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Much of the emphasis on diversionary uses stems from traditions that see
irrigation not in economic terms but as a necessary support for human life
and an essential element of local cultures. These traditions are being
challenged, especially near metropolitan centers, where many farmers see
the inevitability, if not the economic advantage, of transferring water to
municipal-industrial users.

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