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Conservation, Efficiency, and Markets: <br />Improve Water Management and Use Market -Based <br />Approaches To Head off Conflicts <br />4 Accounting for irrigation water <br />deliveries plays a vital role in an effective <br />water management system. <br />Improvements in design and construction <br />of new measuring devices allow water to <br />be accurately measured. These devices <br />could become the foundation for <br />improved water management in the <br />West. <br />r <br />Solar- powered headgate <br />✓The Ochoco Irrigation District in central <br />Oregon lost approximately 40 cubic feet <br />per second (cfs), or 25.8 million gallons <br />per day, at the end of their irrigation <br />system. The District, in partnership with <br />Reclamation, dramatically cut its daily <br />losses by 75% after installing advanced <br />water measurement equipment. In the <br />last two irrigation seasons, these <br />improvements have allowed the district to <br />provide irrigation water for a longer period <br />of time, even though both the 2001 and <br />2002 water seasons have been drought <br />years in central Oregon. <br />6Water banks and markets are essential <br />to avoiding crises in critical areas of the <br />West. The use of water banks and <br />markets is sometimes a source of concern <br />to agricultural areas and the communities <br />that support them. However, the <br />Department of the Interior strongly <br />supports the use of these mechanisms to <br />allow water to be shifted between <br />competing water uses because they are <br />based on a recognition of the validity of <br />existing rights. Water banks also avoid or <br />reduce the conflict, crisis, and heartache <br />that results when water uses are changed <br />through regulatory or other means. More <br />importantly, water banks can provide a <br />mechanism for preserving irrigated <br />agriculture and meeting other water <br />supply needs. <br />✓A critical component of the "CalFed" <br />process in the Central Valley of California <br />is the innovative Environmental Water <br />Account. This account provides a <br />mechanism for state and federal <br />governments to purchase water from <br />willing sellers in order to meet important <br />ecological restoration goals in the San <br />Francisco Bay Delta region. <br />.' - YPW�;' <br />