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IN TRIBAL WATER MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK I I ,I I I I I I I I I I I I Commodity v. Communal: Interplay of Water Values Although the economic value of water has been recognized since the earliest days of nineteenth century settlement in the West, a feeling also has persisted that "water is different." Communities have placed a special value on water that cannot be reduced to dollars and cents and that has made it different from resources nonnaJly treated as commodities. Other natural resources, such as oil and gas, have been regarded as commodities of interstate commerce for many decades. Only recently, however, have the courts begun to regard water as a commodity, even though rights to water use began to be privatized in the last century. The rapid rise of the commodity view of water has not overwhelmed the communal view. Many groups and individuals are resisting the mounting pressure to have water move to the highest bidder. They want their lifestyles and cultures to be protected from the reach of the dollar. The tension between the commodity values and community values can be expected to continue indefinitely in most settings, including Indian reservations. Water Protection, Development, Use and Management Waste v. Conservation: Toward Greater Efficiency It has always been unlawful to waste water, yet in practice marginal but significant amounts of water have been wasted and continue to be wasted. As water demand increases and a higher value is placed on water, waste becomes less acceptable and methuds of saving water increase in popularity. In the last decade or so new technologies and practices of water conservation have appeared and resulted in greater efficiency of water use in the home, factory and field. Conservation techniques include the use of low-flow toilets and showerheads, native ornamental plants, laser-leveling of fields, irrigation scheduling, gated pipes, sprinklers. soil- moisture monitoring and increasing-block. water rates. In some states water users lose some of their rights to water if they use less ("use it or lose it"). Other states provide an incentive for water conservation by allowing the person who conserves water to market the saved water. More changes in law and technology to foster water conservation can be expected as water becomes even more scarce. Water managers will continue to be required to know about the most advanced and worlmble ways of gaining more utility out of available water supplies. Old v. New Technology: Marginal Operations in Peril The trend toward water conservation and greater efficiency involves new teChnology.I7 Other changes in the way water is applied and consumed involves new technology as well. Many of the more advanced technologies require front-end capital invesunents that some water users cannot afford. Examples for some fanners include the cost of sprinkler irrigation or tail-water return systems or computerized soil-moisture monitoring systems. The result can be that some economically marginal operations can no longer compete or cannot comply with regulatory standards that are based on more advanced technology. I 1 I J