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<br />Community Impacts: Beyond Environment and Economic Considerations <br />Public interest considerations may go beyond environmental and economic values. <br />Helen Ingram, a political science professor at the University of Arizona, argues that water <br />advances fundamental community values in rural areas of the arid Southwest. She <br />identifies those as: <br /> <br />Security, confidence that water will be available; <br />Participation, a sense that local interest will be represented; and <br />Opportunity, assurance that there will always be enough water for the <br />community to realize its core values.24 <br /> <br />Opportunity may be linked to economic benefits, but goes beyond financial <br />considerations. Ingram's interviews with rural community leaders in the Southwest found <br />concern over future economic development in an area of origin should water supply not be <br />dependable; "'Businesses won't come into a community where there is no water, or where <br />there's a question about how much water is available.',,25 Beyond dollar considerations, <br />Ingram discovered that certain water transfers may not be compensable: <br />For a community to recieve money for its water would also seem to create <br />opportunity, for money can be invested so as to provide a fair return that can <br />be reinvested in projects that increase public welfare. Should water be <br />needed for growth at some future time, economic reasoning suggests that a <br />community or individual can simply purchase any readily available water. <br />However, such reasoning is far from reflecting what leaders in areas-of-origin <br />really think, Not only do these leaders doubt that money gained from water <br />sales will stay in areas-of-origin, they question whether water will be <br /> <br />available at a reasonable price when it is needed. Further, money is not so <br /> <br />closely linked with perceptions of opportunity as is water. As one civic group <br /> <br />15 <br />