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.