Editorials & Opinion:

Originally Published, June 6, 2003

Water 2025: Building Community Solutions to Avoid Water Conflicts

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By Gale A. Norton

Colorado reflects the best of the West-in economic dynamism, social and educational opportunities, and quality of lifestyle, to name but a few of our strengths.
Our state also faces many of the challenges confronting the West, none of which is greater than the need to secure a stable supply of water for the coming decades.
That's why it is uniquely fitting that Denver will host a kickoff conference to talk about the West's critical water issues. The June 6 conference, Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflicts in the West, will be the first of nine consulting meetings around the West aimed at expanding the dialog on how to prevent chronic water supply problems facing many communities.
The goals of the Water 2025 conferences are to identify the basins facing the greatest potential risk in the next 25 years, evaluate the most effective and attainable ways of addressing water supply challenges, and recommend realistic, cooperative planning approaches and tools that have the most likelihood of success.
Because of growing populations and heightened competition for limited water supplies, the chronic water shortages in many of the region's watersheds are likely to worsen. Inevitably, historic drought cycles-such as the one we are in now-will intensify these problems, resulting in greater competition and increasing the potential for conflict.
Recent water shortages in the Klamath and Middle Rio Grande River Basins-where farmers, communities, American Indians, and fish and wildlife were all affected-underscore the consequences of not planning for the long term. Crisis management is not an effective solution for addressing these systemic problems. The drought is only a warning of the serious consequences on the horizon if we fail to tackle these issues now.
Water 2025 sets out a blueprint to work with and support western governors and local communities as they carry out pragmatic, community-based solutions developed through these consultations. The proposal recognizes that states, tribes, local governments, and the affected communities should have a leading role in this effort.
Interior can focus scarce federal dollars and technical resources where they provide the greatest benefits. President Bush's FY 2004 budget calls for an initial investment of $11 million.
Water 2025 emphasizes solving problems through mutual understanding and agreements instead of looking for ways to assert an increased federal presence. The proposal also is a commitment to action-to using tools tailored to meet the unique needs of a community.
Water conservation, improved management of water supplies, and market-based voluntary transfers by willing sellers and buyers are some of the mechanisms that have proven to be most effective.
Significant amounts of water can be conserved by modernizing water storage and delivery systems. Interior can work with state and local partners to improve water management with new technology, such as advanced canal-lining materials, and automated pumping and canal controls.
Targeted technical and financial assistance from Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture can help farmers, ranchers, and municipalities make more efficient use of their irrigation and drinking water, stretching local supplies even further. Water 2025 also can spur research in critically needed areas, such as reducing the cost of desalinating sea water and treating brackish or impaired ground water.
The proposal encourages voluntary water transfers through water banks or other water marketing tools. These mechanisms include agreements that allow agricultural producers to rent or lease their water to cities and towns or other users in times of drought, and still have the ability to farm in most years.
Water markets allow the orderly and timely transfer of critically needed water between competing users, based on a recognition of the validity of existing rights. They help to avoid or reduce the conflict, crisis and heartache that results when water uses are changed through regulatory or other means. Water markets also can help meet the needs of endangered fish and wildlife.
With American ingenuity, we can create a synergy that makes the "whole" of this effort greater than the sum of its parts. By getting ahead of the crisis/conflict curve and improving the productivity and efficiency of western water supply systems, we can help to meet the water needs of the people and the environment of the West. The future of our region demands that we succeed.

Gale A. Norton is Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. More information on the Denver conference and the Water 2025 proposal is on-line at www.doi.gov/water2025.