9298

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9298
• Author: Water Education Foundation.
• Title: Colorado River Project
• USFW Year: 1999.
• USFW - Doc Type: Symposium Proceedings.
• Copyright Material: NO

WATER
MARKETING
ON THE
COLORADO
RIVER

This means, basically, that the water could be used
to support end users who could be creative in their
mix and match of water use. They could use other
sources before they would use our waters. They could
set aside pumping groundwater while they would use
our water. Or they could bank the water. They could
bank perhaps a larger quantity of our water than they
would need to use and then pull from that bank
water at a slower rate of use. They could, for example,
recharge a 100-year water supply in a 20- or 50-year
period. We could also supply users who could take
advantage of short use circumstances; industrial users
- that might be a short term use.
Regarding the amount of water that would be
available for lease from us, we are currently consider-
ing water leases of significantly less than 10 percent
of our perfected right. We are not talking about a
large amount of water being available. Also, in the
past few years, marketing is coming into competition
with the Tribes' plans for development of their
reservation. Substantially increased water use on the
reservation is the goal
of the Tribal Council;
they want to make
the most use of their
water on the
reservation. This will
result in the days of
tribal water market-
ing being limited.
Strong resistance by
non-tribal interests
to tribal water
marketing in the past
has had a large effect.
I would suggest that you have to be careful what you
wish for, you might get it. What you're going to have
is tribes taking full use of their water, full beneficial
consumptive use on reservation with no water
available for other users. So, like I say, you've got to
be careful.
Now, a few thoughts about water banking. Water
is very heavy stuff and I was truly amazed, even after
25 years in the water management business, to
calculate that there are about 264 gallons in a ton of
water. Now to put that into more understandable
terms, a reasonable use value for use in a city would
be about 130 gallons per-person per-day. That means
that every day a ton of water would be delivered to
my house for my wife and I to use, a ton of water a
day. An average family might use an acre foot a year -
that's over three tons of water per day delivered to
their house. Now, just imagine if you had to use the
SUV or the half-ton pickup to go down to the store
to get that water. You'd be pretty busy hauling water

- Philip Mutz

Not all intrastate water

market proposals are
coated with honey
and sugar and
everyone is happy.

SYMPOSIUM
PROCEEDINGS
SEPTEMBER 1999

o

every day to get your three tons back to the house.
But Mother Nature provides an excellent water
delivery service. Ten billion tons of water every year
come down to the Lower Basin, that's what the 7.5
million acre-feet weigh. And look at how quickly it
comes. Lake Powell is projected next year to receive
11.7 million acre-feet in just one year, for free. It just
comes down and appears in the reservoir.
Now if we talk about using a water bank to
duplicate even a small part of that process, we are
talking about a huge energy cost. We will all be
paying that energy cost. Whether it's green power or
whatever, there's going to be a big energy bill. Can we
handle that job at 1,000 gallons a minute for an
average pump? You're lifting four tons of weight per
minute. Recharging is quick. Putting it underground,
you could recharge 10 percent of our 7.5 million feet
using 3,500 acres in a year. You could do it with a
good recharge facility. But taking it out is a whole
other matter. Just imagine fighting gravity all the way,
like skiing up that slope out there towing a Buick
behind you. It's a lot of work.
You might be able to recharge your water in 3,500
acres but you would need 173,600 new wells to get
that water back out. That would be 55 wells per acre
for that 3,500 acres, so that's not possible. Say you
wanted a spread of a well every 20 to 40 acres, that's
3.5 to 7 million acres you'd need of surface area to
supply that water that you'd be banking. A lot of cost.
Anyhow, all wild speculation aside, I'm afraid
that's our future. We have some very heavy lifting to
do and it's going to cost us a pretty penny to do it
and a lot of energy to do it. Of course, in the
alternative, the tribes could lease some of their fast
and cheap surface water to users and save us all a little
money.

PHILIP MUTZ, NEW MEXICO

INTERSTATE STREAM COMMISSION
I appreciate the opportunity to be here. It's
interesting to be on this panel. Water marketing has
been advocated as the solution to provide water to
areas that are experiencing rapid growth which is
stressing their local supply. Water marketing also has
been suggested as an opportunity to reallocate water
resources to accommodate growth. And water
marketing has even been seen by some as an opportu-
nity to realize large monetary gain. There are prob-
ably a lot of orher opportunities out there that some
people have envisioned for water marketing.
Water marketing seems to work well in many
circumstances within a srate's boundaries. It is alive
and well, including in the state of New Mexico,
irrespective of the ownership of water or water rights