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Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin adjudicated and protected.to Farmers and ranchers, both those producing for cash markets and those producing for subsistence, believe they have been denied access to resources they have traditionally used by decisions regarding environmental protection and other concerns. Much of the frustration about being excluded from decisions is directed at local, state, and federal agencies. But not all. Current residents see land developers at work and wonder who will have to give up water and other resources to meet the demands of new industries and residents. Farmers wonder who will incur the costs of maintaining the irrigation dams and ditches when their neighbors sell their water rights and divert water away from the ditches to nearby cities. Farmers become frustrated when others enjoy the greenery and other byproducts of irrigation but are unwilling to share the cost. , c~ ,~ e Ii I The frustration stretches across miles, both within the Basin and outside it. Those who live on one side of Elephant Butte Dam are frustrated insofar as they are excluded from decisions made on the other side. The same applies to each of the state lines the river crosses. Taxpayers living outside the Basin wonder why they do not have more influence on how publicly-owned lands, resources, and facilities are managed. I ! S :~I "j .:,,;; Much ofthe frustration is unavoidable. The resources and ecosystem of the Upper Rio Grande Basin are complex and so too are the competing demands placed on them. Every resource-management action and every resource use denies somebody's demand for the resource and has multiple spillover effects on others. Some of the frustration also seems to stem from the current political climate of dissatisfaction and distrust. i I I t;li Many believe that at least part of the frustration stems from sources that can be mitigated through the development of new institutions or the ;~.-. . !;:- ':.;." .'; :;~ j.;.:':: 10 The administration of environmental laws, such as the Endangered Species Act (ESA), has increased the frustration of some tribal members, who fear that these laws constitute yet another hurdle they must surmount before they can have their claims to water and related resources validated, Much of this fear has arisen because some beneficiaries of non-Indian development projects have argued that, insofar as the environmental laws prohibit further development and the Indians have not fully developed their use of water, these laws necessarily prohibit the Indian developments but leave the existing development unaffected. Tbe Interior Department's Regional Solicitor counters, however, that the ESA does not elevate other water-resource development over the exercise ofIndian water rights (Vollmann 1996), Indians can proceed to press their claims and, once validated as senior rights to those already developed, they can develop these rights, with the immediate burden of the ESA falling more heavily on holders of junior rights. .::i: .:l;:, " ti~ (, C 2978 -'.J<o_ ~~ 98 l" Vt; ",.