Water Marketing and Water Rights Transfers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas∗

Abstract

Water marketing, which involves the purchase or transfer of water supplies or rights between a willing buyer and seller, represents one strategy for redistributing water resources among competing users. Most frequently, municipalities purchase agricultural water rights to augment their existing supply and help meet projected water demand. In Texas, the most active water market is in the lower Rio Grande Valley where the cities of Brownsville, Harlingen, and McAllen havc acquired surface water rights for converting water from agricultural to municipal and industrial uses. The existence of the Rio Grande Watermaster simplifies the procedure for transferring surface water rights, helps address problems such as the maintenance of instream flow and protection of senior water rights holders, and serves as an administrative model for water resource management. Key Words: water markets, watermaster, allocation, redistributive policy, Texas. 8(1):11-20. soil surveys published between 1973 and 1988. 30(1):13-15. Studies of soil productivity must compensate for the effects of temporal trends in order to examine the pattern of crop yields along spatial gradients. A n analysis of the published yield estimates for 30 soils in 233 counties, however, did not find consistent yield increases over the past three decades. O n the contrary, the yield estimates for many soils weTe markedly uniform since 1972. The uniformity appears to have two cawes: the acknowledged difficulty of making yield estimates in a time of increasing variability in soil and crop management, both within and between regions, and surveyors' awareness of data stored in a national soils data base. The effect is to cast doubt on soil productivity data reported in county

Developing portfolios of water supply transfers

“…The two reservoirs have a combined storage capacity of approximately 5.8 million ac ft (MAF), with an additional 2.1 MAF of capacity set aside for flood protection (dead storage is roughly 30,000 ac ft). The storage in these reservoirs is strictly divided between the United States and Mexico according to the treaty of 1944 [Schoolmaster, 1991], with each countries' share of storage, inflows, outflows, and losses calculated as single system-wide values (Table 1). Since the two reservoir came on line in 1968, combined U.S. storage in these structures has varied from a low of approximately 0.7 MAF to a high of 4.0 MAF.…”

An international borderland of concern: Conservation of biodiversity in the Lower Rio Grande Valley

“…Under this system, "Domestic, Municipal, and Industrial rights have the highest priority in the allocation procedures, with irrigation rights holding a residual claim on inflows to the reservoirs" (Characklis and others, 1999;Stubbs and others, 2003, p. 17;Levine, 2007), and water can be marketed by willing sellers (e.g., Schoolmaster, 1991;Wurbs, 1995). There are two types of irrigation rights: Class A and Class B.…”

Research on Optimal Water Allocation Based on Water Rights Trade under the Principle of Water Demand Management: A Case Study in Bayannur City, China

“…Colby et al [12] analyzed the features of markets, water rights, and water rights trading, and proposed that the transaction of water rights could help establish a reasonable price for water resources. Schoolmaster [13] believed that the main purpose for establishing a water market was to reallocate water resources for improving utilization efficiency. In China, according to the Water Law, the ownership of water resources belongs to the country, and water rights trading only involves the right to use water resources [14].…”