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Equity and Fairness Equity and fairness are central ingredients for working through these problems. Treaty rights are solemn obligations of this country. They have to be honored. They have to be respected. They cannot be taken away. They are tantamount to constitutional rights and more than that, they are the highest moral imperative this nation has. Does that mean that one particular scheme for implementing treaty rights is the one that has to be adopted? No. Does that mean that treaty rights must be considered in the beginning of the analysis? Yes. The effort has to be made to accommodate treaty rights as well as the species. The same could be said about vested water rights. They should not be taken without compensation. The Constitution forbids it in the Fifth Amendment. However, this does no mean the right is absolute. For example, an irrigator does not have the right to flood irrigate a field without concern for improving the water use efficiency. We cannot give absolute rights in that context. Those rights are to use water for beneficial purposes. They are property rights, and they need to be respected. If the law does not deal in fairness, then it is not worth the paper it's written on. Parity The ecological values that we have been discussing and the commodity opportunities aspect of water development have to be on a par. We have to move beyond this business of giving lip service to ecological values. The attitude has been study and consider ecological values but let's get on with building the project. We have to start with new beginnings and a new premise for looking at these questions. Intellectual Power Another ingredient, which I consider the greatest resource, is the power of people's minds. Consider the ingenuity of the people that settled and formed this nation. We have within our intellectual' capability the power to do anything we want, including saving endangered fishes and providing prosperity, wealth and a high standard of living for the people depending on those resources. It can be achieved through a confluence of disciplines, including biology, engineering, economics, and law. We can do it if we commit to doing it. There are alternatives. The whole of environmental law, including the Endangered Species Act, is a search for alternatives. It is a search for better ways of managing resources, developing resources, and using resources. Rethink these paradigms. Nothing is so sacred that it cannot be, at the very least, rethought. Perhaps you will not commit. However, at least be willing to examine every conceivable option. There is not a panacea. No option will fit every. situation. However, creative ideas like water banks, or transferable development rights should at least be considered. I read in the Denver Post a new approach to spray irrigating gray water from Denver on irrigated crop lands around Denver as a trade off for new water supply needs. The basis being a transfer of water from one use to another, recycl ing . Those kinds of crea t i ve approaches that encourage multiple use of resources, respecting environmental values, and being good stewards of the resource exist; they are out there; they are waiting for us to find them. The solutions are hidden in plain sight. 71