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<br /> <br />Water markets can mean an end to water shortages <br /> <br />Page 10 of27 <br /> <br />contrast, irrigation interests are keenly aware and <br />politically active. Politicians deliver water to these <br />special interests at a fraction of the actual cost. <br /> <br />Good pork barrel water projects are not easy to get <br />rid of. For example, President Carter tried <br />unsuccessfully to stop funding a "hit list" of federal <br />water projects in 1979. As recently as 1993, <br />Congress authorized completion ofthe Central Utah <br />Project (CUP), which includes a series of dams, <br />aqueducts, tunnels, and canals designed to collect <br />water from the Colorado River drainage in Utah and <br />transport it to the Great Basin (Gardner 1995,298). <br />As the following chart shows the project will <br />deliver water to irrigators at a cost of roughly $400 <br />per acre-foot. The additional crops produced with <br />the water make it worth about $30 per acre-foot to <br />Utah farmers. But they will only pay $8 per acre- <br />foot. In other words, farmers receiving water from <br />the CUP will pay one-fiftieth of the cost of <br />delivering the water they receive. Water gushes <br />uphill to politics. <br /> <br />More Water Pork: The Central Utah Project <br /> <br />41lll <br /> <br /> <br />!Kl <br /> <br />:illll <br />! ~Kl <br />~ ~Illl <br />I lID <br />I J~ <br /> <br />so <br />o <br /> <br />Cf4 ~ 1iIIthc.. ,...- <br /> <br />lib ItI'lallJ <br /> <br />Source: Utah foundation (1994, 298) and B. <br />Delworth <br />Gardner, Professor of Economics, Brigham <br />Young <br />University, Provo, Utah. <br /> <br />The situation is much the same throughout the <br />world. Typically, revenues from agricultural users <br />barely cover 10 to 20 percent of water project <br /> <br />http://www . perc.org/pub1ications/policyseries/priming_ full. php ?s=2 <br /> <br />9/12/2006 <br />