Marketing the Colorado River: water allocations in the American Southwest

Abstract

The Colorado River is the lifeline of the American Southwest and its waters have been litigated, divided, and fought over for more than a century. One of the recent facts water users must face is that there is not enough water to meet all the demands. A growing water market in the west is one current way western states seek to reallocate water and address shortages caused by drought and over-consumption. The debate over water marketing, however, illustrates a divided opinion about how water should be allocated. Those advocating water marketing argue that commoditizing water will inevitably result in appropriate usage and conservation. Others argue that unintended impacts on third parties to water transfers makes them unreasonable. Most agree that some kind of mitigation of third party impacts must be part of any permanent water market and several different methods are currently used to address this issue. It is unclear what the long-term affects of marketing Colorado River water will be or whether it will prove itself an equitable system. One certainty is that finding new ways to allocate and conserve water in the west is vital to the region’s present and future.