Western Water Policy Program

Colorado River

The Western Water Policy Program (WWPP) is the home for the water-related research projects, events, and advisory activities of the Getches-Wilkinson Center for National Resources, Energy, and the Environment. Since hosting our first major water conference in 1981 (Water Resources Allocation: Laws and Emerging Issues), the WWPP has convened over 20 multi-day water conferences and produced over 100 major reports and books. More importantly, the program has repeatedly proved to be an invaluable source of insights and ideas for legal and policy innovation, serving policymakers, activists, academics, and the public in the American West and beyond.

The WWPP is predicated on the belief that few (if any) factors will have more significance in shaping the long-term future of the American West than our ability to improve water management. While the primary function of the WWPP is to highlight innovations in water policy and law, the WWPP is cognizant that positive change can take many forms, including economic and administrative reforms, technological innovations, and social change, and that one role of the WWPP is to identify the most productive avenues for innovation.

Projects

The mission of the WWPP is to conduct research and advisory activities promoting sustainable, equitable, and practical solutions to the pressing water problems of the American West. Three related challenges form the core of our activities:

The WWPP articulates and promotes implementation of a comprehensive vision of improved water management in the West.
- Although a tremendous amount of research, activism and debate is (and has been) focused on Western water resources, the scope and pace of innovation have generally been insufficient to protect highly valued social and environmental resources. To achieve management goals, the water community increasingly needs a game plan that is more ambitious, sophisticated, and willing to challenge conventional thinking about western water policy. The WWPP is a vehicle for improving the framing of issues, problems, and potential solutions, and promoting enhanced coordination of activities and implementation strategies among other organizations and agencies with similar (although usually more specialized) mandates.
The WWPP investigates current issues and case studies in the region, identifying key trends, and focusing on the primary stressors of population growth and climate change.
- For several decades, the University of Colorado Law School has led the discussion in many areas of water management innovation, including water allocation and marketing, environmental protection, transboundary conflict resolution, and new governance arrangements. Increasingly, these (and related) issues are, by necessity, viewed through a lens shaped by climate change, continued population growth, and the transformation of the energy sector. The WWPP continues to be 鈥渙ut front鈥� on emerging issues, tracking and analyzing those issues in a way that facilitates discussion, education, and problem-solving.
The WWPP identifies and promotes specific legal and policy innovations at multiple levels of government and in multiple decision-making venues.
- Legal and policy innovation is the heart of the WWPP mission, guided and informed by our work in the other two activity areas. The WWPP strives to provide the knowledge, inspiration, and leadership necessary to ensure that water management efforts meet the diverse needs of the 21st century. These efforts are conducted through multiple networks of collaborators and advisors established over the past three decades of activity.

It is increasingly obvious that the combined forces of population growth, climate change, new energy development, and drought events are likely to overwhelm the capacity of the Colorado River system to meet all water demands. The purpose of the Colorado River Governance Initiative (CRGI) is to identify institutional reforms that can address the current and emerging concerns over water scarcity on the Colorado River. Publications of the Colorado River Governance Initiative are available in the Colorado River Information Portal as well as in the .

The transfer (marketing) of water rights from agriculture to urban users is often one of the most cost-effective means of addressing changing water demands in the West. However, such transactions are problematic in many ways. Rules intended to protect other water rights holders can impose high costs on buyers and sellers, and can stop otherwise viable transfers. Additionally, transfers can impose significant socioeconomic impacts on rural communities dependent upon agricultural activities. Many activities of the Getches-Wilkinson Center are focused on these issues, increasingly under the umbrella of Alternative Water Transfer Mechanisms (ATMs), which describe a class of temporary leases that purport to satisfy urban water needs while maintaining land in agricultural production. Some products to date include:

Squillace, Mark. 2012. The Water Marketing Solution. Environmental Law Reporter 42(9) 10800.)
Improving the Viability of Alternative Water Transfer Methods (ATMs) in Colorado: A Synthesis of Research and Findings from the Getches-Wilkinson Center, 2014-2015 (Doug Kenney et al.) (October 2015)

This is also a topic featured in our work on the Colorado Water Plan.

The Getches-Wilkinson Center, in conjunction with many collaborators, has a strong interest in promoting the implementation of the Colorado Water Plan (CWP). This entails work on several subjects, including agricultural water conservation and transfers, integrated land and water planning (including watershed planning), and improved Colorado River management. Some of our relevant papers include:

Shepherding Appropriated Water Within Colorado and to Lake Powell for Colorado River Compact Security (2017) (Technical Appendix)
Where now with Alternative Transfer Methods鈥揂TMs鈥搃n Colorado? (2017)
Proposal for an Enhanced Colorado Water Bank (2016). This concise proposal builds upon a much more detailed research report: An Enhanced Water Bank for Colorado (2016)
Improving Irrigation Water Uses for Agricultural and Environmental Benefits (2016)
Enhancing Watershed Planning in Implementation of the Colorado Water Plan: An Overview of Implementation Challenges and Opportunities (2016)
Watershed Planning and Management in Colorado: Getches-Wilkinson Center Working Paper (2016)
A Look at Laws Authorizing Uses of Conserved and Saved Water in California, Montana, Oregon, and Washington (2016)
Integrated Land and Water Planning in Colorado (2016)

This work builds upon an earlier review of the draft CWP. That report, led by Lawrence (Larry) MacDonnell and featuring contributions from a team of prominent water scholars, is titled Navigating A Pathway Toward Colorado鈥檚 Water Future (2015).

A strong (but largely invisible) nexus has always existed in the West between the water and energy sectors, as water is a major input in most forms of energy development, and large quantities of energy are required for water management and use鈥攅specially for pumping, treating, and heating water. These connections are becoming more salient given concerns of climate change mitigation and adaptation, the reform of energy systems, and the projected growth in water and energy demands. Our work in this area is focusing more attention on this nexus in the hopes of promoting more integration between water and energy planning, and to highlight the potential for cross-sector benefits of demand management. (See: Kenney, Douglas S. and Robert Wilkinson: The Water-Energy Nexus in the Western United States. Edward Elgar Publishing 2011)

听

While the western states all provide for privately held water rights, the water itself is retained in public ownership, and administrators generally have clear statutory obligations to manage this water with respect to the public interest. This is an ongoing and multi-faceted听thread of research with close ties to all other program elements. For project updates, contact Mark Squillace.

麻豆影院