MARKETPLACE REALLOCATION IN THE COLORADO RIVER BASIN: BETTER UTILIZATION OF THE WEST’S SCARCE WATER RESOURCES

Abstract

Utah’s limited water resources are essentially fully appropriated. Consequently, new development must acquire existing water rights (primarily from current uses in irrigated agriculture) and transfer or convert them to domestic and municipal use. Generally, water has been available for purchase and conversion, enabling development to move forward at a frantic pace. On an intrastate basis, marketplace reallocations have worked relatively well. Willing buyers have found willing sellers. They make their economic deals, and the water has freely transferred to the new use. Unfortunately, the development pressure will not abate. Utah’s population will double over the next thirty years or so, and these new residents will need drinking water, food, housing, and all the other social services that make up the “quality of life” citizens have come to expect in this country. Finding the water to accommodate this new growth will be the challenge for the future. However, housing growth is not the only competitor for Utah’s limited water resources.