Laserfiche WebLink
<br />OO~02!1 <br /> <br />IRRIGATION ORGANIZATIONS AND <br /> <br />THE REALLOCATION OF WFSI'ERN WATER <br /> <br />Rodney T. Smith. <br /> <br />Introduction <br /> <br />Irrigation organizations find themselves at the vortex of economic, legal, and political <br /> <br />developments of western water policy. It is now a cliche in the western water policy community <br /> <br />that some water must be reallocated from "lower-valued" agricultural uses to "higher-valued" <br /> <br />municipal, industrial, and commercial uses. In addition, the emergence of the public trust <br /> <br />doctrine in California, state environmental laws throughout the west, federal environmental laws, <br /> <br />and state and federal water quality laws are creating new standards for the use and protection <br /> <br />of water resources. At the same time, urban interests will strengthen their control over state <br /> <br />legislatures in western states after the 1992 reapportionment asa result of the continued <br /> <br />urbanization in the west. Therefore, when competing claims on agricultural water resources and <br /> <br />· Co-Editor, Water Strategist and Water Intelligence Monthly; Associate Professor of <br />Economics, Oaremont Mckenna College, California <br /> <br />1 <br />