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from salinity levels. The resulting direct economic impacts fall largely on the agricultural sector. However, there is an additional category of impact that arises in this case. Several water delivery projects are planned for the next 45 years to cope with regional population growth. Critical habitat designations will necessitate that these projects be constructed earlier with a consequent increase in the cost of water delivery and this will have the effect of reducing household and fIrm budgets for other expenditures. Alternatively, conservation actions will be required which will also raise costs to water users in the form of additional investments in conservation actions. 5 IV. Regional Impact Modelingli Two classes of applied general equilibrium models were developed for the analysis of the economic impacts associated with the protection and recovery of endangered species in the Colorado study. The first class consists of a set of conventional Input-Output (1-0) models of the entire region and of the sub-regional units (e.g., one for each of the seven states). The second class is a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model of the entire region. For the Virgin River study, separate 1-0 models for each of the two impacted counties and a regional model for all three counties were developed. The 1-0 and CGE analyses enable the determination of a variety of impact measures. Impacts are measured as changes in output. The two model classes measure impacts at three levels: the sub-regional level, the regional level, and the national level. Depending on the case study, the 5 Per capita water use in the St. George, UT area is considerably greater than in other southwest urban areas. Current use in 465 gallons per capita per day (gpcd). For the conservation scenario this was reduced to approximately 260 gpcd which is comparable to Phoenix and well above Tucson, AZ which has a use rate of 160 gpcd. Conservation requires expenditures which raises the effective cost of water and this was incorporated into the scenario. 6 The detailed accounts of the modeling are found in Brookshire, McKee, and Watts (1993), Brookshire, McKee, and Watts (1994), and Brookshire, McKee, and Schmidt(1995). This section draws upon and is taken in part from chapters 7, 8, and 15 (section K) of Brookshire et al. (1993) and was utilized in Brookshire et al. (1994, 1995). 13