This authority conducts an annual planning review. Projects are selected according to longer-term strategies, policy guideliiaes set for each year, plus a list of seven criteria (eg contribution to state energy policy goals, potential economic benefits). All staff members and many outsiders are invited to contribute to, and review drafts of, animal plans.A possible project is formally first summarised in a one-page proposal which is then discussed b y the Authority's R&D Management Committee, chaired by the President. I f approved, details go to the Technical Review Committee, which uses four main criteria (eg concerning information dissemination and technology transfer). Environmental impact assessments and many other smaller reviews may also be needed.Approved projects are monitored, and lessons extracted for the future.
Problems of water quality and quantity are critical to development of the energy resources of the Western U. S. Based on a number of independent measures, the Upper Colorado River Basin will experience severe water availability problems in a few decades if projected energy and agricultural development occurs. Given the impending collision between the competing interests of various Western water users, water resource management and conservation deserves the utmost attention. Substantial opportunities for conservation exist in energy and agricultural development. Selection of both conversion and cooling technologies and careful siting decisions can sharply reduce the water requirements of energy development. Agricultural water conservation strategies include improving irrigation and cultivation practices, removing phreatophytes, removing marginal lands from production, and changing crop patterns. In order to accomplish significant conservation, however, there must be changes in those aspects of Western water law that remove conservation incentives from the water use system.
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