Water and Diamonds

Two hundred years ago Adam Smith compared diamonds to water, questioning the value of one compared to the other.   Diamonds—sparkly, beautiful, and rather useless—commanded such a high price compared to water—the foundation upon which all life was built.  Not much has changed.   Water is no less precious and yet we still pay pennies for it.  We know water is valuable, yet its value of use (utility) is not reflected in its value of exchange (price).  The price of water does not reflect its profound value, nor its opportunity costs, infrastructure, or externalities.  This is a product of history and also water’s role as a social good.

We don’t pay true costs of water because in many ways, we never have.  When water rights systems built on prior appropriation were established, there was enough water to meet the needs of the few people who lived here.  The long-held rights established at this time were at  little or no cost.  The West did face some strain as it began to develop, but a slew of irrigation projects tided the area over until the Age of Dams which enabled an era of thoughtless growth.  The American West owes a great deal to the Great Depression.  Without it dams like Hoover and Grand Coulee, products of Roosevelt’s New Deal, would have never been built.  These dams, huge displays of human power, ability, and desperation provided enormous amounts of water (and energy) for the West’s growing metropolises and farmlands.  We distributed water throughout the west, downhill and uphill, at low prices subsidized by energy generation and the American public. 

These huge public works projects were also enabled by the low wages of the Great Depression.  America had a huge amount of manpower willing to work for pennies, and we mobilized that workforce, building billions of dollars of infrastructure which we could never afford today.  (We also had two overzealous rival organizations, the Bureau of Reclamation and Corps of Engineers which pushed through even the most ridiculous of projects.)  This infrastructure is creating some problems for us today; namely, we can’t afford to repair that infrastructure, which is now falling apart.  In fact, 11 years ago, the Congressional Budget Office estimated water and wastewater infrastructure expenditures would cost $800 billion over the next 20 years.

While there are millions of people all over the world who have little or no access to clean water, here in the United States we can take our faucets for granted.  (This will cost us too—about $8 billion a year for the next 30 years just to maintain US drinking water infrastructure.)  Water is a social right which all people have a right to, and this aspect also limits our ability to balance price and cost.  As prices of water increase in the West, access to water will decrease for people who cannot afford the higher costs.  This relationship, along with general resistance to higher utility bills, makes it difficult to create change and removes market incentives to conserve and use water efficiently.

            Our water is underpriced, and in the long-term, this will cost us dearly.  Our infrastructure is crumbling, our water use is largely inefficient, and our environment is plagued by drought.  Our reluctance to pay is a product of history and access, but it is time to change this liquid paradigm.  Water is more precious than diamonds.  It doesn’t have to cost as much as diamonds, but we should at least pay for the costs we incur by turning on our taps and watering our lawns. 

To read more- look to The Business of Water: A Concise Overview of Challenges and Opportunities in the Water Market, by Steve Maxwell.  

An Important Reminder

Water is valuable because it is the basis of life as we know it.  This is rather obvious, yet every time we have a conversation about water, it seems like we need a reminder.  Every speech, every lecture, book, blog, report, and article.  We need reminders every day, because apparently our dependence on water is so acute we have forgotten all about it (or chosen to ignore it).  It is no secret that humans today use and pollute more water than ever before, and we are beginning to explore the limits of this decisive resource. 

In modern times, we have defined and valued water by its uses and products.  We find water’s value in what it enables us to grow, build, and develop, and our laws reflect and perpetuate that value in the American West.  While every Western state has different water policies, they all incorporate different applications of the doctrine of prior appropriation.  This doctrine is built around two major principles. First, people can claim a right to water use (not the water itself) by diverting the water and applying it to beneficial use, and the existence of the right depends on the continuous application of that use.  Second, the earliest party to use the water has the right to use it during times of shortage to the exclusion of others.  This means that if a senior water user is downstream of a more junior user, the senior water user’s water needs must be fulfilled before the junior user’s. 

Water has a profound emotional, spiritual, and cultural meaning which our societies’ conversations struggle to frame in measurable, logical ways.  And because we can’t measure it, we have largely dismissed it and compromised our earth’s integrity and our own societal longevity.  Our need for clean water will only grow more acute in the future, which means that in order to have water for tomorrow, we need to redefine the value of water today.  This can come by expanding our definition of use.  We can acknowledge that water is used by the environment and that water is useful when it stays in the environment.  We can say water is valuable when it stays in a stream and flows to the ocean like it has since time immemorial. 

This change is occurring, albeit slowly.  For example, the definition of “beneficial use” is flexible.  It has evolved from one based in mining and agriculture to something which includes kayak parks which do not consumptively utilize the water rights they own.  Mechanisms also exist within some water markets which allow parties to purchase water rights for the environment, meaning that we can buy water to ensure it stays in its streams.  By utilizing the tools available to us—law, markets, government—we can create opportunities to protect and conserve water, something which will ultimately benefit us. 

These victories are small and important, but they can seem inconsequential in the face of the huge industrial development we have achieved. This is frustrating.  Our actions within this century will impact the world for tens of thousands of years in ways we cannot understand and may never see, and we can measure progress in kayak parks and acre-feet.  Water is the basis of life as we know it, and yet we have disregarded it in pursuit of development.   We need more than a reminder to conserve water resources, but right now, a reminder is all that I can give. 

Please follow this link to Ecosystem Economics if you are interested in a company which uses economics to meet conservation needs http://ecosystemeconomics.com/Home.html.  If you are interested in learning more about Colorado water laws, I recommend Colorado Water Law for Non-Lawyers by P. Andrew Jones and Tom Cech.  

Advice from a River

Advice From a River

Dear Friend,
Go with the flow
Be thoughtful of those downstream
Slow down and Meander
Follow the path of least resistance
for rapid success

Immerse yourself in nature,
trickling streams,
roaring waterfalls,
sparkles of light dancing on water
Delight in life's adventures around every bend
Let difficulties stream away

Live simply and gracefully in Your own True Nature
moving, flowing, allowing,
serene and on course
It takes time to carve the beauty of the canyon
Rough waters become smooth
Go around the obstacles
Stay current

The beauty is in the journey!

-Ilan Shamir

The Colorado River

A Modest Proposal

Below, feel free to read my research proposal:

Water showcases the power of humans—the power to govern, the power to industrialize, the power to contain and control.  We have dammed it and channeled it, we have appropriated it and promised it, we have bought and sold it, leased and loaned it.  We have piped it through mountains and deserts; we have used it to grow industry and agriculture where it would have otherwise been impossible.  And just as water reveals our power, it also betrays our dependence at a most basic level.  All things living rely on water for life, and this core dependence has shaped generations that have treasured the sacredness of water.  Individuals value water beyond its role as a commodity.  As humans have utilized water to meet our personal, agricultural, and industrial needs, we have aggravated a strain between its societal commodification and individual singularization, the extents and limits to which any commodity can be bought and sold. 

In Colorado, this relationship between society and individuals is exemplified by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), its use of water, and the potential threats it poses to water quality and the people dependent on it. Fracking is water intensive, as a mixture of water, chemicals, and sand is pushed far below the surface of the earth to release petroleum and natural gas.   By exploring the societal structures and personal interests involved in fracking and water use, I will evaluate the relationship between societal commodification and individual singularization of water in Colorado.  For eight weeks during the summer I will investigate Colorado’s commodification of water through business, policy, and law as well as citizens’ personal connections to water through tradition, stories, and experiences.  

I have grown increasingly interested in people’s relationship with water in the past year through my Geography and International Studies classes, which have allowed me to connect international theory and environmental issues.  Additionally, after a recent (2012) research project that used interviewing and surveying to investigate reforestation and community development in Northern Mongolia, I have gained experience applying a cultural lens to international and environmental issues.  I am ready to apply my background and theoretical interests to issues of increasing importance such as water use, energy, and conservation which also directly impact my life and the lives of people around me.  This project incorporates a wide range of disciplines, and it will be successful because its foundations draw from established sources and scholarly work while combining them with an original, localized application.

Because my project incorporates international theory, regional law and industry, and personal experience, I will use secondary research to investigate a wider application of laws and theories, and I will use primary interviews and surveys in order to gather localized and individual information.  I will also identify two Colorado counties—one of which has experienced accidents attributed to fracking and one which has not—in order to juxtapose experiences of people with water under potential threat and those without it at a regional level.  These counties will act as case studies upon which I can extrapolate future implications for the relationship between fracking and water use in Colorado and create a balanced and thorough final report.

In order to evaluate Colorado’s commodification of water, I will first review Colorado water law and policy in order to understand Colorado’s history of water appropriation, especially in regards to mining and industry.  To gain a better understanding of the tensions in creating water law I will interview stakeholders who develop the law and are impacted by it, including planning and zoning commissions and county commissioners, Colorado’s major gas companies who buy and lease water rights to use for fracking, and environmental interests.  By gathering information about government and business through literature and interviews, I will be able to create an evaluation of the societal commodification of water. 

Through interviews and surveys with citizens in each respective county, I will investigate the singularization of water by individuals in Colorado.  These investigative means will allow me to question the boundaries Coloradans believe limit the commodification of water and learn the cultural significance and personal importance Coloradans place on water, especially when water as a resource appears threatened. Through interviews, I aim to gather individuals’ stories and experiences in order to compile a narrative to describe the processes people use to create personal meaning and significance for the water on which they are so intimately dependent.  I will use this process of singularization to evaluate the tensions between it and the societal structures which have commoditized water in Colorado, and I will gain a better understanding of the relationship between the two.

My research will culminate in a written report which I will present in the spring to the Undergraduate Research Symposium and make available to various stakeholders and interests.   I will conduct my research in June, July, and August, and because of my work with human subjects, I will apply for IRB approval in April. This summer research project represents a unique opportunity to investigate an intricate relationship between society, individuals, and water, and I will do this investigation independently, with support from my faculty partner.  My faculty partner will help me submit my research project for IRB approval, connect me with research materials focused particularly on environmental, water, and energy issues, will stay in touch over the summer to stay updated on my progress, and review my final report. 

Because of humans’ ultimate dependence upon Earth’s water, it is imperative that we explore our intricate relationship with it.  As fossil fuels become harder to access, fracking is likely to become a more popular and viable strategy for energy, and the need for water and water rights will increase.  This demand will strain against the decreasing availability of water, and understanding the societal extent of water’s commodification and the individual processes of singularization will be important in creating balanced laws and policies regarding fracking and water use in Colorado. My summer research project will take investigatory steps in building that understanding and will prove a valuable tool for Colorado policy makers, industrialists, and environmentalists in future water management and decision-making.

A Summer Begins

As I write this, I am sitting in Rocky Mountain National Park next to a wetland watered by the Colorado River.  Frogs are croaking incessantly, and the pond before me is so rich with insect life that it looks like it is raining.  The environment betrays a rainy spring, and the river flows with a rich green-brown.  It bulges to the very brim of its banks, escaping in many places.  Free though it is now, this water will never reach the ocean.  It will irrigate farmland and power industry; it will be forced deep in the ground to release other valuable resources.  It will water lawns and cities.  It will mull about in reservoirs, navigate the Grand Canyon, and stream through canals.  It will not follow the path it once carved through the American West but conform to the mission we’ve given it, for better or for worse. 

The frogs and bugs must have invited a friend to enjoy breakfast.

Colorado is a headwater state, meaning that all but one of the rivers which leaves its borders begin within it.  Most of the river water is appropriated the moment it hits the earth as snow or rain, and everyone who depends on these Colorado rivers for their food, electricity, green lawns, and recreation is dependent on the amount of moisture which falls from the sky.  The last two Colorado winters have been dry, and the state has suffered the consequences of what I believe is climate change through fire, drought, and poor skiing.  This year, through an unusually wet April and May, snowpack increased from 60 something percent to nearly one hundred percent of average annual rates, and you can hear sighs of relief throughout the state. 

My interest in Colorado’s water began in Mexico, at the mouth of the Colorado River.  This area, the Colorado River Delta, was once a rich wetland and estuary which supported thousands of migratory birds, fish species, and humans.  Today, the area receives less than .1 percent of the river’s water, and it is at only ten percent of its normal size, even as non-profit organizations and the International Boundary and Water Commission work to revive this vibrant and resilient ecosystem.  This environmental issue is strongly connected to human ones: international policy, industry, and regional & local laws.  This summer I will study those regional and local issues, particularly in regards to fracking. 

The Colorado River

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is a process which forces a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals into the ground in order to release natural gas or oil.  Today in Colorado it is a particularly hot topic.  One Colorado city, Longmont, recently banned fracking within the city and has received a lawsuit from the state for their efforts.  The governor has publicly debated fracking and recently drank a glass of fracking fluid to prove it isn’t harmful to humans.  Industry is touting our lessened dependence on foreign oil and the prevalence of natural gas.  People living near fracking sites have been able to light water from their taps on fire.  Environmentalists are shaking their heads in disbelief. 

I am spending the summer studying fracking, its relationship to water, and individual perceptions of water in Colorado.  I think societal structures which allow large industry the rights to use water are fascinating, particularly when that industry poses a threat to communal water availability and quality.  This process is particularly interesting because of the profound connection all life has to water.  Water is not (or should not be) some man-made commodity to be bought and sold at will, but a sacred resource upon which all life depends.  This tension is what I hope to bring to light, and I invite you to join me over the next few months.