All We Really Need to Know We Learned in Kindergarten: Share Everything (Agricultural Water Sharing to Meet Increasing Municipal Water Demands)

摘要

Colorado is at a crossroads of continuing the status quo of buy-and-dry, or embarking on a path that encourages agricultural water sharing in order to minimize the permanent dry-up of irrigated land. As discussed above, current temporary transfer mechanisms in Colorado are insufficient to truly meet the challenges to achieve widespread agricultural water sharing and minimize buy-and-dry. Numerous initiatives demonstrate that it is possible for agricultural producers and municipal water providers to collaborate and share resources. Other states have successfully implemented water sharing agreements, like the PVID/MWD contract that allows cities to obtain water during dry years without permanently removing agricultural land from production. In Colorado, the Catlin Pilot Project shows that stakeholders are willing to enter into agricultural water sharing arrangements despite institutional and legal challenges. To encourage agricultural water sharing in Colorado, it is vital to create a friendlier institutional and legal structure that removes some of the barriers to these agreements. Lawmakers should facilitate this solution by allowing agricultural water sharing agreements to be handled administratively, requiring applicants to use conservative tools like the LFT to prevent injury, vesting authority in the State Engineer to approve agricultural water sharing terms and conditions to similarly prevent injury, and authorizing the CWCB to establish and operate a water bank to connect willing irrigators and interested water users.