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<br />The shift from "water markets" to "equity" as an expressed <br /> <br />means for effectuating redistribution of water supplies has been <br /> <br />sudden. In the mid-to-Iate 1980's, water reform interests <br /> <br />advocated that water markets should find favor in governmental <br />decisionmaking, in part prompting the United States Bureau of <br /> <br />Reclamation to issue a set of "Principles Governing Voluntary <br />Water Transactions That Involve or Affect Facilities Owned or <br /> <br />Operated by the Department of Interior". 17 <br />Since "the appropriation right provides the security that is <br />desirable in a property right" by attaching "a definite quantity <br /> <br />of divertible water during a certain flow of a stream"'. and <br /> <br />because Section 8 of the Reclamation Act'. provides that state <br />law governs the establishment of water rights for federal <br />reclamation projects, the then-emerging national policy favoring <br /> <br />acquisition of supplies through bargain, sale, and consideration <br /> <br /> <br />appeared to be well-founded as a water redistribution tool. <br />In the space of six years, however, United States policy has <br />altered dramatically, severely curtailing a large potential <br /> <br />source of marketed water. A Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner's <br /> <br />memorandum of July 20, 1994 (Appendix E, attached), discontinues <br />pre-existing policy in favor of limited-term agreements, or <br />memorandums of understanding which are terminable at will, so <br /> <br />17 A. Dan Tarlock, et al., National Research Council, Water <br />Transfers in the West, supra, at 89. <br /> <br />18 Robert G. Dunbar, Forging New Rights in Western Waters, <br />(University of Nebraska Press 1983) at 209. <br /> <br />w 43 U.S.C. SS 372, 383. <br /> <br />8 <br /> <br />