Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Water markets can mean an end to water shortages <br /> <br />age 15 of27 <br /> <br />generated net benefits of $91 million (MacDonnell <br />et aI. 1994,2-45; Thompson 1996,8-9). The <br />success of the drought bank led California to use it <br />again in 1992 and 1994 and to consider establishing <br />a permanent State Drought Water Bank. <br /> <br />In the Cities <br /> <br />In addition to trades among irrigators, water is <br />increasingly being traded between agricultural and <br />urban users. <br /> <br />· Utah's residential building boom has given <br />rise to an active market in water rights. Cities <br />are requiring builders to prove they own <br />adequate water rights to serve the homes they <br />plan to build before construction can begin. <br />This has sent the value of water rights <br />skyrocketing. Shares of water rights held by <br />ditch companies are selling for as much as <br />$3,200 per unit, a fourfold increase since <br />early 1993. The high cost of water is leading <br />some towns to install two pipelines to each <br />home, one carrying drinking water, the other <br />untreated water for lawns and gardens (US. <br />Water News 1994). <br />· Following passage of a 1980 law in Arizona <br />that made groundwater freely transferable, the <br />cities of Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa and <br />Scottsdale acquired more than 50,000 acres of <br />farmland. The goal is to retire the fields and <br />pump the water to households. <br />· Along Colorado's front range, towns and <br />cities have been buying water rights from <br />ditch companies and irrigation districts and <br />transferring the water to municipal lines. <br />· In Nevada, municipalities have been buying <br />water rights to secure future development. <br />Las Vegas has a standing offer to purchase <br />water rights for $1,000 per acre-foot <br />(Steinhart 1990, 42). <br />· In the mid-1980s, American Western <br />Development, Inc., a consortium of investors, <br />bought the 155,000-acre Baca Ranch in <br />Colorado's San Luis Valley with the goal of <br />pumping some of the valley's vast supply of <br />groundwater to Denver and Colorado Springs. <br />The $600 million plan was foiled, however, <br />when the courts forbade the exports on the <br />grounds that other water users in the valley <br />would be harmed. After spending $30 million <br /> <br />http://www . perc.orglpub lications/policyseries/priming_ full. php ?s=2 <br /> <br />11212006 <br />