8009 ‎(2)‎

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8009
• Author: Natural Resources Law Center.
• Title: Restoring the Waters.
• USFW Year: 1997.
• USFW - Doc Type: Boulder, CO.
• Copyright Material: YES

Washington's Trust Water
Rights statute and
Oregon's Conserved Water
statute both provide for
the dedication of a portion
of conserved water to
instream flows.
Increased Irrigation Efficiency
1976-1993
^ Acres irrigated with micro-
irrigation systems, including drip
irrigation, increased from 155,000
to 1,631,000 acres westwide.
^ Acres irrigated with sprinklers
increased from 12 million to
18 million acres.
^ Acres irrigated with surface
irrigation systems decreased from
about 37 million to 26.6 million
acres.
Water conservation can:
^ Alleviate the need for new, environmen-
tally damaging water supply projects;
^ Reduce diversions from rivers, leaving
additional fresh water instream for fish
and wildlife, if there is a mechanism for
reallocating conserved water to
instream purposes; and
^ Reduce selenium and pesticides in rivers
and estuaries by reducing agricultural
drainage and runoff from excess
irrigation.
When water is reallocated from agriculture
to the environment to comply with
provisions of the Endangered Species Act,
Central Valley Project Improvement Act
(see Central Valley Project, California), or
other laws, water conservation can also
help mitigate the economic impacts to
agriculture by enabling farmers to main-
tain their output with reduced water
supplies.
While there are many individual cases of
successful water conservation efforts,
much of agricultural water use is still
inefficient, and there is still much resis-
tance to institutionalizing conservation.
For example, measurement is a key to on-
farm conservation, yet many irrigation
districts throughout the West do not
measure water deliveries to farmers.
Rather than charging farmers for what
they use, these districts charge aper-acre
flat fee. Without measurement devices, it is
impossible for these districts to implement
even the simplest water use pricing scheme
to encourage conservation.
Encouraging Conservation
The recent droughts in various parts of the
West spurred the adoption of improved
methods of irrigation as well as a switch to
less water-intensive crops. In many cases,
improving irrigation efficiency has at the
same time led to increased yields and
reduced costs for farmers. Three of the
following case studies demonstrate that
52
farmers can decrease their water use and
generate benefits for the environment
while increasing on-farm yields and
lowering costs.
How can additional programs be devel-
oped to encourage farmers to conserve
water to meet the demands of both crop
production and environmental protection?
In Colorado, one of the major water
conservancy districts runs an irrigation
management service to encourage and
assist farmers with equipment and training
to improve their water management (see
Northern Colorado Water Conservancy
District, Colorado).
In California, there are innovative demon-
stration programs underway within two of
the largest and most sophisticated agricul-
tural water districts to demonstrate how
financial incentives can be created by the
districts themselves to induce improved
water use efficiency by farmers. The
objective is to increase the value of
agricultural water to farmers without
increasing its cost, thereby creating an
incentive to save water.
Arvin Edison Water Storage District,
California, illustrates the potential for
implementing water price reforms as
incentives to conserve water. Westlands
Water District, California, identifies the
potential for establishing a water market
to induce greater conservation via an
electronic water trading system in the
largest agricultural water district in
California.
These demonstrations highlight the most
promising tools for promoting water
conservation and help clarify the amount
of water the agricultural community could
conserve for reallocation to the environ-
ment if given the proper incentives.