WSP00913

• File Number: 8272.600.60
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program - Basin Member State Info - Utah
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 3/7/1975
• Title: Colorado Regional Assessment Study - Phase One Report for the National Commission on Water Quality - Part 2 of 2 -- Chapter VI - end
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

~
o
o
w

under another of our policy alternatives.

In sum, the institutional impediments to a solution of the salinity

problem via altering allocations and concomitant action by the states

in restricting water use are very formidable indeed. It is improbable

that such cha~ge can be made without some unexp.ected and radical

developments,

Public Investment in Water Quality Ixnprovement. Public investment

in water quality improvement results from a collective decision by some

unit of government. Private investment results from the decision of

some private entrepreneur to improve his profit or utility position. It

is important that they be differentiated for the following two reasons:

(1) Perhaps more than half of the salinity concentration in the river

originates from natural causes (precipitation runoff, contributions from

natural saline springs, phreatophyte evapo-transpiration, etc.) quite

independent from man-made effects. Since these are "natural" phenomena,

they do not result from explicit decisions of men upstream to use the

water profitably, and thus they are beyond the control of purely private

decisions. (2) Improved quality downstream is a "public good'! for the

following reasons: Ixnproved water quality cannot be I!packaged" and

sold through the private market. The result of the "public good" nature

of some resource improvements is the so-called "free-rider" problem.

No beneficiary will pay for the quality improvement since he knows he

cannot be excluded from the benefits even if he does not pay. No private

ii