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<br />.: ..nn2 0 57 <br /> <br />There are also socia-economic impacts associated with improved irrigation efficiencies. <br />The vegetation along ditches, which relies on conveyance losses for a water supply, has in <br />some areas become a major community amenity. Ditch lining eliminates this vegetation, <br />and replacing ditches with pipe eliminates both the vegetation and the artificial waterway. <br />In urban areas ditches serve as the aesthetic and recreational equivalents of a natural <br />watercourse. On the other hand, transfer of increments of salvaged or saved water is <br />presented as an alternative to tbe total conversion of agricultural water rights to municipal <br />uses. Thus, rural co=unities may be spared the economic and environmental impacts <br />associated with large scale total dry-up of irrigated acres. <br /> <br />VI Poli<;y Issues <br /> <br />A number of policy issues must be addressed and resolved to incorporate salvaged or <br />saved water into the water rights system in Colorado. <br /> <br />A Role of the State <br /> <br />Should Colorado take an active role in promoting and encouraging better water use <br />efficiency? It has always been state policy that water should be used wisely and beneficially; <br />and that waste is not tolerated. However, the state has primarily relied on private efforts <br />in a free market to accomplish this goal. Water users have resisted suggestions that the <br />state develop a comprehensive water management plan. Rather, the creation of a <br />specifically defined and transferable property right to the use of water, has permitted <br />economic forces to move water to its highest valued use. Is this a sufficient role for the <br />future? Public perceptions about waste, inefficiency, and conservation may demand a more <br />proactive approach. The equitable apportionment doctrine which invites federal judicial <br />scrutiny of wise resource use, as well as Colorado's current efforts to maintain compact <br />entitlements may dictate a stronger state role. <br /> <br />If the state decides salvaged or saved water should be a component of a strategy to <br /> <br />30 <br />