WSP05164 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

APPENDIX 1 ISSUES THAT INVOLVE THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK OF BASIN MANAGEMENT JOHN KEANE SALT RIVER PROJECT PHOEN IX, AZ This has some overlap with coordination of managers (#10), especially pricing and protection of non-consump- tive users and the impacts of water transfers. The current framework does not handle a number of issues, and should be completely overhauled. Also, should the USBR have a role at all or a much reduced role, replaced by some regional, non-federal structure. DOUG LOFSTEDT EPA-SALI N ITY DENVER, CO I think this general concept will continue to gain interest as the ecosystem/watershed approach becomes more wide- spread. An associated issue will be how to develop efficient and effective basin-wide institutional arrangements. I would guess that interest in a basin-wide approach to deal- ing with stream/water quality issues will also increase, e.g. moving past the current focus on just salinity to other issues like Selenium. W.B. LORD 80u LDER, CO Institutional issues are top priority because their satisfacto- ry resolution determines how adequately all of the other substantive issues can be resolved. Existing institutions perpetuate imbalanced water management and are too inflexible to respond to changing needs and perceptions. LARRY MACDONNELL SUSTAI NAB I LlTY IN lTIATIVES 80ULDER , CO Constructing a framework within which Colorado River water use entitlements can be traded to meet emerging needs. To me, the number one issue concerns devising a means by which the apportioned waters of the Colorado River can be allowed to move according to the needs of their use. This will come as no surprise since I have been working on this issue recently. I suspect that much of the conflict in the Basin would go away if there really was an effective means for the apportioned waters to move accord- ing to demand. TODD MACFARLANE KANE COUNTY WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT KANAB, UT We are in the process of developing a county-wide water resource management plan. Once that plan is completed in early 1996, we will be in an even better position to further identify and address issues that are of particular concern to us. In light of our master-planning effort, one of our biggest concerns is the need for certainty. We want to be comfortable that after we have invested the time and resources in a comprehensive study and plan, that we will be able to rely upon it well into the future, without con- stantly changing conditions and uncertainty created by competing demands elsewhere in the basin, on adjacent public lands, and public land and water use policies including threatened and endangered species. WAYNE MARCHANT CRD-LAS VEGAS, USEPA LAS VEGAS, NV In general, I believe you have captured the most nettle- some issues very well. Reaching consensus on just this list of formidable topics would be a chaIlenge worthy of the diplomat (Assistant Secretary Holbrook) who seems to have at least achieved a temporary peace in Bosnia- Herzogovina. To find solutions to the problems inherent in these issue statements is even more formidable. RICHARD MARZOLF U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, WATER RESOURCES BOULDER,CO Institutional framework of basin management, is of high- est priority. Issues which involve economic aspects of irri- gation (as land use) and hydropower marketing (a strong driver of population growth and land use)are also impor- tant. The more I think about this the less I am able to sep- arate these issues into independent categories, That's instructive, however, because it means that the problems complexity is probably real. It is all underpinned by west- ern water law, and we should deal with these as interact- ing issues and not as separate ones. These four groups of issues are crucial to water resource development, manage- ment, and use. The priority of issues in the remainder of your list seem far subordinate to these; that is, if sodety doesn't improve in the big four, the rest won't matter. Each [of the other items on your list] has great impor- tance in its ovm right. No.6, Native American water rights; No.7, Mexican issues, and No.5, public involve- ment are basically legal issues, different subsets of the larger legal picture. Water efficiency and coordination between managers and users are immensely important issues involving public education. Education wiIl be a central element of any change in a societal approach to water resource use. I considered your list for omissions too, One glared. Knowledge/Education issues - Science applied to water quality issues, mediation of water quality by natural processes - Areas of research for developing water resource manage- ment - Mechanisms of technology transfer and public education - Integration of culture, economics, law, history; and sci- ence into water resource decisions - Legal research required to modernize appropriative water rights. PHIL MuT'z NEW MEXICO INTERSTATE STREAM COMMISSION SANTA FE, NM Experience indicates that critical management issues will likely change or new, more critical issues will emerge over the next few years.