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.~ remained rare outside of the confines of an irrigation district or project area."" Therefore, little market information as to relative marginal valuations or demand elasticities was available to potential participants in a statewide water market. In addition, California continued to have a reputation as a state in which the administrative requirements of the water transfer process were cumbersome and fraught with uncertainties.1O\ Although the review process for temporary transfers had been streamlined in 1988,'" it was still lengthy relative to the time-frame of a single-year transfer. Thus; potential delays, uncertainties about transferable quantities and lack of market information useful to private parties attempting to negotiate the price and other terms of a transfer agreement constituted significant barriers to the use of privately arranged transfers to mitigate the impacts of the drought. I" In addition, riparian water rights were generally held to be non-transferable, and transfers from within an irrigation district to an outside party usually required that the water be declared surplus to the needs of the district. These facts further inlnbited the spontaneous development of a private water-rental market. ""Gray, Brian E., 1990. "Water Transfen in California: 1981-1989,. in MacDonnell, Lawrence J. (principal Investigator), The Water Transfer Process as a Management Option for Meeting Changing Warer Demands, Volume II, USGS Grant Award No. 14-08-0001-GI538. Boulder: Natural Resources Law Center, Univenity of Colorado. IOIThe California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) has jurisdiction over transfen of water rights established after 1914 under the state's permit system. Earlier rights may be transferred without state review, although inadequate records may inhibit such transfen. National Research Council, 1992. Water Transfers in the West: Efficiency, Equily and the Environment, Washington, D. c.: National Academy Press. While the same non-injwy standards apply for UlIDSfers of early rights as for those subject to SWRCB approval, aggrieved parties must seek remedy in the civil courts. Transfen of water within large irrigation projects such as the federal Central Valley Project (C\1') are also outside of the jurisdiction of the SWRCB. Gray, Brian E., 1990. "Water Transfen in California: 1981-1989: in MacDonnell, Lawrence 1. (principal Investigator), The Warer Transfer l'rocus as a Managemmt Option for Meeting Changing Warer Demands, Volume II, USGS Grant Award No. 14-08-0001-G1538. Boulder: Natural Resources Law Center, Univenity of Colorado. ~ornia Water Code U 1725-1732 (West Supp. 1990). ""Macaulay, S., 1993. "Successes and Problems with Water Transfer and Marketing Programs; speech presented lune 7, 1993 at meeting of Southern California Water Committee's Task Force on Water Transfen and Marketing. 2-24 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I