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Full-Text Articles in Law
Inefficient Efficiency: Crying Over Spilled Water, Vanessa Casado-Pérez
Inefficient Efficiency: Crying Over Spilled Water, Vanessa Casado-Pérez
Faculty Scholarship
As the drought in Western states worsens, the agricultural sector is being criticized for failing to adopt technical responses, such as shifting to less water-demanding crops and state-of-the-art irrigation systems, in a timely manner. However, these responses can have the reverse effect: they can increase water consumption. Technological responses alone are insufficient to reduce water consumption if unaccompanied by changes in how the law defines and allocates water rights. This paper proposes a redefinition of water rights to ensure that changes in crops or irrigation techniques are socially efficient.
In the West, which uses the doctrine of prior appropriation to …
Agenda: Coping With Water Scarcity In River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned From Shared Experiences, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment
Agenda: Coping With Water Scarcity In River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned From Shared Experiences, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment
Coping with Water Scarcity in River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Shared Experiences (Martz Summer Conference, June 9-10)
Water scarcity is increasingly dominating headlines throughout the world. In the southwestern USA, the looming water shortages on the Colorado River system and the unprecedented drought in California are garnering the greatest attention. Similar stories of scarcity and crisis can be found across the globe, suggesting an opportunity for sharing lessons and innovations. For example, the Colorado River and Australia's Murray-Darling Basin likely can share many lessons, as both systems were over-allocated, feature multiple jurisdictions, face similar climatic risks and drought stresses, and struggle to balance human demands with environmental needs. In this conference we cast our net broadly, exploring …
All Dried Out: How Responses To Drought Make Droughts Worse, Vanessa Casado-Pérez
All Dried Out: How Responses To Drought Make Droughts Worse, Vanessa Casado-Pérez
Faculty Scholarship
Water usage is governed through a variety of mechanisms, including government administration and market tools. In 2006-2008 Barcelona’s region, a water scarce area, suffered a drought comparable to the one faced today by the US West. This article surveys a variety of techniques which were or could have been used to address these scarcity challenges. Spanish water regulations established water markets in 1999 but neither the design, nor its implementation were optimal. In addition to the design and implementation flaws, the response to the 2006-2008 drought crisis shows how emergency measures highjack water markets as a viable solution to water …
Marketing Conserved Water, Mark Squillace, Anthony Mcleod
Marketing Conserved Water, Mark Squillace, Anthony Mcleod
Publications
Water law scholars have long supported water markets for addressing critical water needs, especially in arid regions like the western United States, and that support seems to be growing among policymakers as well. But translating academic theories about water markets to the field has proved challenging. To be sure, water can be transferred from one use to another use in all western states, but water markets in those states are not presently capable of providing prospective buyers with a reliable source of water when and where they need it. The reasons are myriad, but are primarily related to the high …