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

area are dominated by municipal wastewater effluent during low-flow
periods and may pose a threat to human health (U.S. International
Boundary and Water Commission et al. 1994). They also increase treatment
and other costs for downstream water users. EI Paso is seeking to construct
a pipeline and take other actions that would enable it to obtain water with
fewer pollution problems from farther upriver and to prevent relatively clean
water from being polluted by irrigation return flows. The EI Paso County
Water Improvement District (EPCWID) diverts more water from the Rio
Grande than its contract with the BuRec allows in an effort to dilute the
dissolved salts in its return flows (U.S. Department ofthe Interior 1995a). A
water quality study conducted by U.S. and Mexican state and federal
agencies identified the area downstream ofEl Paso-Ciudad Juarez as having
high potential for toxic chemical impacts on aquatic health (U.S. Inter-
national Boundary and Water Commission et al. 1994).

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A.2. Bottom-Line Problem #2: The Basin's Water and Related Resources
are Persistently Allocated in a Manner That is Less Than Ideal

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If the water and related resources of the Upper Rio Grande Basin were
allocated in a manner consistent with the ideals of competitive markets, then
market forces would ensure that these resources would be allocated to those
who place the highest value on them. As the economy changes over time,
some demands for a particular resource would grow, others would diminish,
and the allocation of resources would shift accordingly and quickly through
multiple transactions and exchanges. Reality, however, is far different from
this ideal. The values of many goods and services derived from the resources
are not easily expressed in monetary terms or traded in market-like
transactions. Some demands that reflect a relatively low value for a resource
have legal preference over others that reflect a relatively high value, and
these preferences are enforced-some more rigorously than others-by a
complex web of treaties, laws, contracts, and institutions. As a result, the
local, regional, and national economies forgo valuable goods and services as
well as incremental increases in the standard ofliving. Many assert that the
system is grossly unfair.

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The evidence for these conclusions is broad, but mostly indirect. One must
rely on indirect evidence both because the relationship between the economy
and the resources is complex and because there are few data for directly

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