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<br />~ <br />~ <br />Q <br />~ <br /> <br />Conservation Service (SCS) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) have <br /> <br />cooperated in formulating on-farm salinity control programs. (See U.S. Bureau <br />of Reclamation. 1987 . for a description.) <br />A number of choices are subsumed under the term "salinity control policy." <br />These include: a) the level of sal inity permitted. b) the technologies for <br />controll ing sal in ity. and. c) the incentive/penalty institutions influenc ing <br />salt discharge. Taken together. these elements of sal inity pol icy determine <br />how the joint damage and abatement costs burdens are shared. Economic analysis <br />including cost-effectiveness. cost-benefit and distributional studies. can <br />contribute to these choices. <br /> <br />Solutions to externality problems such as irrigation-induced salinity will <br /> <br /> <br />require either reaffirmation or redefinition of entitlements. Evaluation of <br /> <br /> <br />these p rob 1 ems must go beyond convent i on a 1 economic efficiency anal ysis <br /> <br /> <br />(Bromley). Seen in this 1 ight. the Colorado River sal inity problem is a <br /> <br /> <br />conflict between an emerging perception of the Lower Basin's entitlement to <br /> <br /> <br />undegraded water versus the long-established entitlement of the Upper Basin to <br /> <br /> <br />use water in traditional - even if polluting - ways.1 <br /> <br />Objective and Approach <br /> <br /> <br />Before policy recommendations can be formulated. a background of empirical <br /> <br /> <br />relationships must be establ ished. Our objective is to contribute to such a <br /> <br /> <br />background. The analysis does not claim to be value-free - policy analysis <br /> <br /> <br />cannot be so; rather. it presents relevant empirical relationships for <br /> <br />resolving the entitlement conflicts identified above. <br /> <br />Our earl ier study (Gardner and Young) reassessed the estimated economic <br /> <br />benefits of the federal salinity control program to lower Colorado River Basin <br /> <br />agricultural water users. We concluded that. because the indirect economic <br /> <br />3 <br />