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DRAFT areas of or ig in for natural resources other than water do not receive such treatment, al though severance taxes are in fact based on the notion .of allocating a share of the wealth distri- buted by nature in the form of mineral deposits or timber stands to those who happen to live in the adjoining area.4 It is true that water may be appropriated without payment of a market- established price but the same is true for hard rock minerals on the public lands. One important difference between water and other resources such as minerals is that although a local economy can exist without the minerals, it could be seriously injured by a major withdrawal of water. An often-cited illustration of the need for area-of-origin protection is the Owens Valley in California.S To suppl Y its burgeoning water requirements in the early part of this century, the Ci ty of Los Angeles bought up much of the agr icul tural land and accompanying water rights in the Owens Valley east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. A major aqueduct was constructed to transport this water to Los Angeles. The effect was to virtually eliminate what had been a thriving agricultural economy. Though Los Angeles paid for the water rights and much of the agricultur- al land, it did not have to provide any compensation for the 4Another interesting parallel can be found in the statutes passed in the 1970's to provide special protection to local areas impacted by the rapid growth accompanying energy and mineral development. See, e.g. MacDonnell, "Regulating Socioeconomic ~ . Impacts: ComparIng the Colorado and Wyoming Approaches," 20 Land & Water L. Rev. 193 (1985). SA full account is provided in R. Nadeau, The Water Seekers (1950) and E. Cooper, Aqueduct Empire (1968). 4