PUB00024

• Year: 1998
• Title: Water in the West: Challenge for the Next Century
• CWCB Section: Interstate & Federal
• Description: Report of the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission
• Publications - Doc Type: Tech Report

Executive Summary

Respect Existing Rights

Acknowlege and respect existing treaties, compacts,
and equitable apportionments with states and tribes.
Respect and give appropriate legal deference to
existing water rights and state water appropriation
systems.

Promote Social Equity

Determine and fulfill tribal rights to water.
Universal access to safe domestic water supplies
should be apriority. We must also recognize that
local economies have developed throughout the
West as a result of government policies designed to
encourage certain land and water uses. As those
policies evolve, regardless of the reason, people and
communities affected by such changes may need
time and assistance to make a transition. Water
transfers should be carried out with full
consideration of the communities of origin, third
party transfers, and unintentional consequences, and
should be open to participation by affected parties.

Organize Around Hydrologic Systems

Strive to make state and federal water programs and
decisionmaking more efficient and effective. To
help address the problems created by multiple and
often conflicting jurisdictions, authorities, and
program objectives, we should organize or integrate
water planning, programs, agencies, funding, and
decisionmaking around natural systems-the
watersheds and river basins. This will require
integrating institutional missions, budgets, and
programs, as well as their congressional oversight.
Duplicative or overlapping programs and activities
should be integrated or modified. Planning and
management of land and water, surface and
groundwater, water quantity and quality, and point
and nonpoint pollution must be coordinated at the
appropriate level of government.

Ensure Measurable Objectives, Sound
Science, Adaptive Management

National, regional, and local water resource goals
should be translated into measurable objectives.
Performance should be assessed through open,
objective, scientific studies, subject to peer review.
Where knowledge is incomplete, actions should be
based upon the best available data within a
framework o(monitoring and adaptive management.
Determination of the best use of resources should
take into account social, economic, environmental,
and cultural values.

Employ Participatory Decisionmaking

National, regional, and local resource decision-
making must be open to involvement and
meaningful participation by affected governments as
well as interested and affected stakeholders.
Sufficient information about the consequences of
resource decisions should be made available to the
public.

Provide Innovative Funding

Given declining federal budgets, innovative sources
of funding and investment, including public and
private partnerships, must be found for the
management and restoration of western rivers.

New Governance of Watersheds
and River Basins

The Commission investigated numerous examples
of local watershed initiatives, watershed councils,
basin trusts, citizen advisory groups, and
collaborative governmental partnerships that are
springing up around the West to address critical
problems of water supply, water quality,

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