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

Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin

different thing to another. We use these and other potentially hot-button
terms not because we are siding with any group but because we must. They
are mainstays of economic discourse on the competition for scarce natural
resources and we use them strictly within this analytical context.

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We employ the term, "use", to refer not just to conventional uses associated
with physical manipulation of the resource, such as withdrawing water from
the stream for irrigation, but also to more passive uses, such as recreation or
maintaining riparian habitat, that entail leaving water in the stream.
Consistent with this approach, we also take a broad view ofthe term,
''value'', employing it to refer not just to preferences for goods and services
measured in monetary terms, such as bales of hay produced from irrigated
fields, but also to those that are not monetized, such as recreational
opportunities and spiritual fulfillment derived from some streams. We also
use the terms, "allocation" and "management" in a broad sense, referring to
all aspects of private and public decisions that inevitably have allocative and
managerial consequences for the use of the Basin's resources.

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Criterion #2: The resources are used in the manner that yields the
highest standard of living.

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Although many factors contribute to the standard ofliving, the impact of
alternative resource uses on standard ofliving typically is estimated by
looking at three factors: the number of jobs, level of income, and quality of
life. In the optimal case, the impact on all factors would coincide so that the
best alternative would yield the most jobs, highest income, and best quality
oflife. In reality, one alternative might dominate for one or more factors but
not for all. Hence, applying this criterion entails making judgments
weighing each alternative's aggregate impact on the standard ofliving.

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Criterion #3: The resources are used in the manner that is
perceived to be fair.

The assessment offairness is a complex task that generally entails making a
subjective comparison of the benefits and costs individuals or groups are
entitled to receive from a given resource use against the benefits and costs
they actually receive. Issues of fairness embrace the allocation of benefits
and costs among groups within the current population as well as between the
current population and future generations. In the optimal case, there would
be agreement about the fairness ofthe allocation and management ofthe

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