Water Reallocation in the West: An “Inconvenient” Truth?

The growing demand for water in urban communities has increased pressure on current water entitlement holders, such as irrigators, to share their water. In the western Canadian province of Alberta, water sharing proposals often require irrigators to permanently sell their water. The majority of irrigation licenses are held by irrigation districts. Under the Irrigation District Act, the transfer of part of such licenses outside the district requires the approval of a majority of irrigators within the district. These water transfer plebiscites often attract considerable opposition from irrigators. Our study attempted to assess nature and reasons behind such opposition. Based on a survey of 275 randomly selected irrigators representing all districts of Alberta, we found that 40% of irrigators prefer sharing water rather than permanently selling it. Irrigators who oppose to water transfers belong to two groups. One group will always oppose water transfers regardless of any gains, while the other group considers factors such as environmental, personal or communal gains when they reject a water transfer. Strategies to effectively conduct a plebiscite on water sharing rights are later discussed.

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“…However, successful transfers have occurred. This result merits additional research to determine why some transfers succeed and other fail [10].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 96%

Against the grain: segmenting and profiling irrigators opposed to water transfers in Alberta, Canada

Lafreniere¹,

Bjørnlund²,

Deshpande³

2012

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

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“…Water markets, in general, have drawn criticism over their functional inefficiencies (Matthews 2004), the commodification of a public resource (Dellapenna 2005), and incapacity to consider both public values and private interests in proposed transactions (Matthews 2010). Water use in the U.S. West often involves interconnected uses and hydrologic interdependencies that have underpinned competitive as well as cooperative efforts to increase water use security in the face of scarcity (Endter‐Wada et al.…”

Section: Connecting Water Security and Water Reallocationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Accumulating Interest in Water Banks: Assessing Their Role in Mitigating Water Insecurities

Carney

Endter‐Wada

Welsh

2021

J American Water Resour Assoc

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Reallocation is often promoted as a response to water security dilemmas in the western United States. Water banking is a form of reallocation utilized in several states to facilitate temporary water rights transfers. This article frames and examines water banking’s potential influences on water security from a hydro‐social perspective through a case analysis of water banking policy in Utah. It analyzes the challenges of integrating the market‐based economic incentives of water banks with the legal precedents of the prior appropriation doctrine to reallocate water in overappropriated basins with hydrologically interdependent uses. Key‐informant interviews and focus groups were used to examine water security’s meaning to stakeholders and analyze how water banking could affect the water security of disparate users and uses at multiple scales. Stakeholders predominately saw water security as assurance in water quantity, but water security was further equated by participants with the legal protections afforded by water rights. Multiple complexities in water bank implementation are to be expected when multiscalar contexts are considered, including societal and hydrologic tradeoffs in settings with diverse and interconnected interests. Our research shows that examining the potential ramifications of water banking policy through stakeholder perspectives can reveal nuanced insights on individual and collective water security issues not only within Utah but other arid regions in general.

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“…In absence of a national water policy, one challenge faced in nearly every interstate river basin is how best to allocate surface and ground waters equitably, a process which can and does end in litigation and adjudication. However difficult, water transfers and markets are necessary to maintain both an agricultural base and burgeoning population growth in the West . In recent years, conservation has been forced, with quotas for agricultural use in some basins.…”

Section: Illustrative Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However difficult, water transfers and markets are necessary to maintain both an agricultural base and burgeoning population growth in the West. 39,45 In recent years, conservation has been forced, with quotas for agricultural use in some basins. Prolonged drought in this region means another year of limited allocations for California's Central Valley, the most heavily used aquifer in the United States.…”

Section: Western United Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A dual‐continua framework for assessing water use models and the potential for conservation

Czarnecki

Omer

Kröger³

2015

WIREs Water

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Regions vary in their supply of and access to ground and surface waters. These two issues together have substantial influence on the pressures and drivers of water conservation adoption (i.e., necessity vs voluntary adoption). A framework for water use models is proposed where regions are evaluated on two continua, infrastructure (engineered and political) and freshwater supply (physical and usable). Eight illustrative regions are placed into four quadrants based on waterrelated infrastructure and supply. Regions in quadrant I experience both ample water supply and adequate infrastructure to still be operating with conservation as a 'luxury.' Regions falling within quadrants II and IV experience a shortage of either supply (II) or infrastructure (IV) but adequate levels of the opposite factor. Regions falling within quadrant III bear the double burden of limited supply and infrastructure. Shifts in quadrants are examined as a function of movement along infrastructure and supply axes. This study seeks to answer (1) for a region with both ample supply and sufficient access to freshwater, what are the mechanisms by which the situation will degrade; (2) for regions lacking either supply or infrastructure (or both) what are the mechanisms by which the situation can be improved; and (3) how do regions maintain status in preferred quadrants?

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Water Reallocation in the West: An “Inconvenient” Truth?

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Against the grain: segmenting and profiling irrigators opposed to water transfers in Alberta, Canada

Against the grain: segmenting and profiling irrigators opposed to water transfers in Alberta, Canada

The Accumulating Interest in Water Banks: Assessing Their Role in Mitigating Water Insecurities

A dual‐continua framework for assessing water use models and the potential for conservation

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