WSP05845

• File Number: 8507
• Description: Rio Grande Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Rio Grande
• Date: 7/1/1997
• Title: Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin part 2
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Chapter 3

An Overview of the Basin's
Resource-Management Problems

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In this chapter we summarize the major problems associated with the
growing competition for water and related resources in the Upper Rio
Grande Basin. The biggest challenge in this endeavor arises because there
are so many problems, all deeply intertwined, that it becomes impossible to
demonstrate cleanly where one stops and another starts. We sort through
this confusion in a manner that we believe is conducive to the evaluation of
alternative policies and actions for resolving the problems. We recognize,
however, that our definition of individual problems and our depiction of how
they relate to one another are necessarily somewhat arbitrary, and
recommend that the reader consider our discussion of individual problems
not in isolation but only in the larger context.

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Whatever the approach for describing and evaluating the problems, one first
must define the criteria for determining if a problem exists and for
measuring its severity. We use criteria derived from the principles of
economics and our analytical framework, described in Chapter 2, for
assessing the competition for water and related resources in the Basin. The
outcome from this competition will be optimal if:

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Criterion #1: The resources are used in the manner that yields the
highest net value for the bundle of goods and services
derived from the resources.

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One must look not just at the value of goods and services directly derived
from a particular use but also at the concomitant effects on the competing
demands for each resource. We describe this comprehensive scope in the
discussion of Boxes 1-4 in Figure 2.1. In the optimal case, allocation and
management decisions yield the highest sum ofthe net value of the goods
and services produced currently plus the net present discounted value of the
future goods and services whose production is determined by current
decisions.

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The preceding paragraph illustrates a difficulty inherent in this study: one
cannot discuss the competition for scarce resources in this Basin without
using concepts and words that are ambiguous and controversial. AB we
explain below, the competition for these resources is intense and rests on a
history that often has been bitter. In this setting, the groups vying for the
resources often adopt words, such as resource "use," "value," f'allocation," and
"management," as code words meaning one thing to one group and quite a

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