8001

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8001
• Author: Western Regional Instream Flow Conference.
• Title: Proceedings, Western Regional Instream Flow Conference.
• USFW Year: 1992.
• USFW - Doc Type: Oct. 2-3, 1992.
• Copyright Material: NO

like this valley is. The question, though, that this raises that I sort
of like you to address is does that sort of ambivalence in your
work have you seen this sort of ambivalence arise as an
impediment to moving forward in the hinds of institutional
changes that you've described?
A-(Ed Marston) I'm not ambivalent any longer. I think
the movement of this urban money and wealth although in
the short term it seems to give those of us who identify
ourselves as capital "E" environmentalists that it seems
positive, I have decided after 20 years in this little commu-
nity, that it is not positive that we have to write off these
areas that have attracted these people. And so, there's no
ambivalence in my mind. The hope I hold out is that the
people who work I mean, if you're land-based. And I think
living on the land is very different than living off the land.
And the people moving in are coming here to live on the
land and to do their electronic cottage like I do, I guess and
whatever. And that the hope is reform of pure rural
economies in places that do not attract people like our-
selves, because they're ugly or they don't have cultural
centers or because culturally they are hostile to us. We can't
live there. And so I just put black marks through those
places. I mean, they're interesting. I think we've set the
region into motion and now it depends on sort of real
world people whether they can figure out how to integrate
the modem forces in the world: entrepreneurism, market-
ing-wean themselves from the federal from outside
transfusions of federal money and administration, and
make a go of it. And what 1 get really excited about is going
to these hinterlands and finding these people. And they're
out there. I don't know if that answers the question, but I'm
really grateful for it.
2-Directed to John Keys by Rob Brady, The Post Register,
Idaho Falls, Idaho:
Mr. Keys this morning referred to a water marketing law in
Idaho. As he knows, there's quite a few restrictions on
transferring water in that law. But one of the reasons that we
find that farmers do not identify with the law that much is they
tell us if a farmer above them sells his water well say half in this
instance that he downstream may not get the returnflow that
he's entitled to. How would Mr. Keys answer that question?
A-I think what you just said is that if somebody upstream
sells the water to somebody downstream or the person
you're talking about, then they would not benefit from the
return flow they had benefited from in the past?
A-(John Keys) Basically, the law that we work with in
Idaho, Reclamation, and so forth deals with stored water
And there is a water bank for natural flow, but it's a lot
different that the water bank or the rental pool that the
Upper Snake Basin works with. The Upper Snake pool is
just storage water. So, you don't get into that thing of
pulling water out and not benefiting from the return flow
except when the person above had been using his water
from the reservoir, and they were benefiting from the
return flow. Basically, there's no provision to protect that
person in that law now.
Comment-Well, thank you. I would like to tell Mr.
Marston if he doesn't mind that we do have a newspaper in
Idaho Falls, Idaho that is regional and national and deals
with all the environmental problems of this region and even
the nation. I talk a lot to committees in Congress as a
matter of fact. I do enjoy your great journalism product by
the way, Mr. Marston.
Comment-(Ed Marston) You're right. Jerry Brady, Rocky
Barker do really good work, and but it's not a statewide.
2-Directed to John Keys by Marti Bridges, Idaho Rivers
United, Boise, Idaho:
It was alluded to earlier that by Edward Osann that there are
these conservation plans that irrigation districts submit to the
Bureau. These were to have been handled in the early 1980's,
and I have in fact have had the opportunity to review a number
of those on the Boise project, and they are in fact as abysmal as
he alluded to. So, my question's for John Keys. When does the
Bureau intend to enforce implementation of those required
irrigation efficiency and conservation plans that have been
submitted, and how do you propose to do so?
A-(John Keys) Basically, when the Reclamation Reform
Act was passed '82, there was a requirement for those
conservation plans, but unfortunately that's as far as the law
went. It required a plan, but then it had no provision for
enforcement or the ability to encourage people to do it. It
just said you got to have a plan and everybody had to get
plans together and Mr. Osann was right: there are good
ones and some not so good ones out there. If we can ever
get some changes made to that law, that's one of the places
you'll see benefit from that. We are working with those
plans to try to make them better and to try to implement
them. Each one of our regional offices in the Bureau of
Reclamation have established a water conservation center.
And one of the first activities of those centers is to upgrade
those plans and work with the districts to implement them.
And that is underway in the Pacific Northwest even as we
speak. Ultimately, the result from those plans though will
depend on how much cooperation we can cajole from the
33