Surface Water Rights Research Articles

Increases in the Amounts of Agricultural Surfaces and Their Impact on the Sustainability of Groundwater Resources in North-Central Chile

Water is a fundamental resource for Chile’s productive structure, which is more important in arid areas, and especially with agricultural uses. This study was based on two basins (Cogotí and Illapel) located in the Coquimbo Region of north-central Chile. In this region, surface water rights were closed in 2002 and the only current option is the use of groundwater. These basins have high water demands due to the use of surface and groundwater for agricultural purposes, a fact that should influence the sustainability of groundwater reserves over time. The objective of this study was to determine how much agricultural use has affected the availability of groundwater in two basins. Under the previous context, the evolution of agricultural irrigation surfaces was evaluated using Landsat images and forest classifications. Similarly, groundwater reserves were evaluated using the recessive curves of hydrographs associated with the beginning of each hydrological year. The results show an increase in the agricultural area between 1996 and 2016, with a subsequent decrease, while groundwater reserves denoted significant decreases over time. In conclusion, a significant decrease in the volumes of groundwater reserves in both basins was observed, a decrease that is consistent with the increase in irrigated areas.

The Economic Value of Clarifying Property Rights: Evidence from Water in Idaho’s Snake River Basin

This paper exploits a novel reform in Idaho to measure the economic value created by clarifying property rights for water. Between 1987–2014, the Snake River Basin adjudication determined who had legal rights to use water, covering 139,000 water rights and 90% of Idaho’s water use. Using differences in the timing of adjudication between different sub-basins, we find that adjudication caused a 140% increase in the frequency of water right trades and transfers; that these trades and transfers moved water to parcels of land more suitable for irrigated agriculture; that water-use intensity remains unchanged after adjudication; and that adjudication prompts irrigators, especially those owning surface water rights, to shift from lower-value to higher-value land uses. These changes create benefits with a present value of at least $402.7 million, outweighing the one-time fixed cost of $94 million Idaho spent on adjudication.

Water storage and agricultural resilience to drought: historical evidence of the capacity and institutional limits in the United States

Food systems are particularly sensitive to changing precipitation patterns. Resilience via irrigation will depend on baseline conditions, water source, and institutional constraints which have not been studied jointly. We draw on over 100 years of agricultural production and weather data across the United States to identify the extent to which access to stored water—distinguished by its source and location—affects drought resiliency. Arid regions with access to stored water avoided the 13% losses in crop value experienced in irrigated areas with more limited storage during droughts. Humid regions are also beginning to adopt irrigation, but with less aggregate impact during drought. The incomplete governance of groundwater withdrawals in many areas allow resiliency in the near-term, but potentially at the expense of future water availability. Conversely, surface water rights allow for the widespread application of irrigation water, but with less resiliency during significant periods of drought.

The effect of prior appropriation water rights on land‐allocation decisions in irrigated agriculture

AbstractThe doctrine of prior appropriation, which administers water rights based on seniority, may introduce heterogeneity in the risk of a water shortage among otherwise similar agricultural irrigators. We develop a theoretical model that describes how farmers with differing seniority in water rights adjust land‐allocation decisions in response to an anticipated change in water deliveries. Using a fine‐scale dataset of spatially referenced surface water rights for Idaho's Eastern Snake River Plain, we find evidence that irrigators with differing water rights make systematically different land‐allocation decisions, and that farmers with the most junior (least secure) water rights are most responsive to an expected water shortage. These irrigators adapt to anticipated dry conditions by increasing land fallowed and planting a less profitable, drought‐resilient mix of crops. Relatively dry growing season conditions exacerbate the potential for prior appropriation to introduce inefficiencies by driving a divergence in resource‐use decisions between otherwise similar irrigators with differing water rights.

Water transfers in El Paso County, Texas

Water rights transfers for surface water have taken place in El Paso County in far west Texas for many decades. Historically, these exchanges have primarily occurred between agricultural water users. In recent decades, there have also been transfers from agricultural uses to urban uses. Ongoing commercial and demographic expansion in the El Paso metropolitan economy increases the likelihood of additional farm-to-municipal transfers in future years. Although legal mechanisms have periodically been introduced to allow these exchanges to occur, pricing has not played a central role in the process. At present, transfers of surface water rights in El Paso County occur under fairly rigid conditions.

Surface water-groundwater interaction issues in Texas

In Texas, surface water is owned and regulated by the State of Texas, whereas groundwater is owned by respective property owners under the rule of capture. Owners of surface water rights, issued by the state, and groundwater may use and sell their water as a private property right. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality administers surface water rights, while groundwater conservation districts (where they exist) are primarily responsible for permitting groundwater use. This paper focuses on the complexity of both systems that are designed to manage water resources differently with specific emphasis on where surface water and groundwater interact. Surface water-groundwater interactions have contributed to disputes over the actual ownership and right to water. The available science and the limitations of the models currently used to make water availability and permitting determinations are discussed, as are the investments in field data gathering and interpretation and model enhancements that can lead to better assessments of surface water-groundwater interactions and impacts. More complete science and enhanced models may also help reduce the timeline associated with the permitting of future water supply and use strategies. Citation: Young SC, Mace RE, Rubinstein C. 2018. Surface water-groundwater interaction issues in Texas. Texas Water Journal. 9(1):129-149. Available from: https://doi.org/10.21423/twj.v9i1.7084.

Effects of the Structure of Water Rights on Agricultural Production During Drought: A Spatiotemporal Analysis of California's Central Valley

AbstractCalifornia's Central Valley region has been called the “bread‐basket” of the United States. The region is home to one of the most productive agricultural systems on the planet. Such high levels of agricultural productivity require large amounts of fresh water for irrigation. However, the long‐term availability of water required to sustain high levels of agricultural production is being called into question following the latest drought in California. In this paper, we use Bayesian multilevel spatiotemporal modeling techniques to examine the influence of the structure of surface water rights in the Central Valley on agricultural production during the recent drought. California is an important place to study these dynamics as it is the only state to recognize the two dominant approaches to surface water management in the United States: riparian and appropriative rights. In this study, Bayesian spatiotemporal modeling is employed to account for spatial processes that have the potential to influence the effects of water right structures on agricultural production. Results suggest that, after accounting for spatiotemporal dependencies in the data, seniority in surface water access significantly improves crop health and productivity on cultivated lands but does not independently affect the ability to maintain cultivated extent. In addition, agricultural productivity in watersheds with more junior surface water rights shows less sensitivity to cumulative drought exposure than other watersheds, however the extent of cultivation in these same watersheds is relatively more sensitive to cumulative drought exposure.

A spatially explicit framework for assessing the effects of weather and water rights on streamflow

Policies that establish availability of water for human uses are key tools for ecologically sustainable water management. In places where water management is decentralized and dispersed across a catchment, spatially explicit tools are essential for evaluating the cumulative effects of many instream diversions on discharge and water availability through the drainage network. We developed a spatially explicit model to evaluate the cumulative impacts of surface water rights under a decentralized management regime, and apply this framework to the Navarro River catchment, in northern California, and evaluate impacts relative to formal policies to determine whether water is available for further appropriation given environmental needs. Model results show that upstream water rights comprise a small fraction of normal-type winter discharge; but they comprise a much larger portion in dry years and all of discharge during the summer dry season. In a normal-type rainy winter season, water rights comprise less than 5 percent of the average discharge during the through almost all of the drainage network: by policy standards, water is widely available for further appropriation during this winter period. Most stream reaches where upstream water rights comprise more than 10 percent of discharge are small headwater streams (zero- and first-order). During other periods such as November and April (the beginning and end of the rainy season, respectively), impairment by water rights remains low under average conditions; but under dry conditions, most streams order 0–2 with upstream water rights are impaired more than 10 percent (with some more than 50 percent). During average summer conditions, 45 percent of the drainage network with upstream water rights is impaired by more than 20 percent; and 25 percent of these streams are impaired by more than 50 percent. These results indicate that water is available for further appropriation in winter; but water rights can cumulatively impair discharge by more than ten percent in small and large streams under dry-type conditions, and by more than 50 percent basinwide during the dry season.

The Water Transfer Effects of Alternative Irrigation Institutions

Irrigation districts (IDs) use a large portion of the surface water rights in the American West. Microeconomic analysis of water use conditions within IDs indicates that it can be economically optimal for IDs to engage in less reallocative activities compared to private water rights holders. Institutional insights combine to show that the political orientation of IDs favors irrigation over irrigators in the sense that the rewards of water marketing tend to be incompletely captured. Based on an analysis of 38 years of time series water transfer data, we found that IDs underparticipate in agricultural‐to‐municipal water transfers relative to non‐irrigation districts in terms of water right‐weighted transfers. The results support further policy redesign if reallocation is to be viewed as a scarcity‐solving strategy in ID‐dominated regions.

Evaluation of power generation operations in response to changes in surface water reservoir storage

We used a customized, river basin-based model of surface water rights to evaluate the response of power plants to drought via simulated changes in reservoir storage. Our methodology models surface water rights in 11 river basins in Texas using five cases: (1) storage decrease of existing capacity of 10%, (2) storage decrease of 50%, (3) complete elimination of storage, (4) storage increase of 10% (all at existing locations), and (5) construction of new reservoirs (at new locations) with a total increase in baseline reservoir capacity for power plant cooling of 9%. Using the Brazos River basin as a sample, we evaluated power generation operations in terms of reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability. As simulated water storage decreases, reliability generally decreases and resiliency and vulnerability remain relatively constant. All three metrics remain relatively constant with increasing reservoir storage, with the exception of one power plant. As reservoir storage changes at power plants, other water users in the basin are also affected. In general, decreasing water storage is beneficial to other water users in the basin, and increasing storage is detrimental for many other users. Our analysis reveals basin-wide and individual power plant-level impacts of changing reservoir storage, demonstrating a methodology for evaluation of the sustainability and feasibility of constructing new reservoir storage as a water and energy management approach.

Water Transfers for a Changing Climate

The prior appropriation doctrine provides for the allocation of most surface water rights in the Western United States. It is rightly praised for overcoming the uncertainty that plagued the riparian doctrine, which historically dominated water allocation law in the Eastern and Midwestern United States. When water users are confident about the security of their water rights, as they are in prior appropriation doctrine states, they are more willing to invest in projects that demand a reliable water supply. Unfortunately, the very certainty that protects water users under prior appropriation law can stifle efforts to reallocate that water as times and needs for water resources change. Water use for irrigation best illustrates the problem. Irrigated agriculture accounts for well over 80% of the freshwater resources used in the West. But even as agriculture has become less important to the economic health of Western states, and even as Western cities and water demands to serve those cities have grown, moving water from agricultural to urban use has proved very challenging. To be sure, it happens, but transferring water has proved far more difficult, more time-consuming, and more expensive than it needs to be. Ironically, this has led many cities to opt for even more expensive, and often more environmentally-destructive water projects. What becomes apparent from analyzing this situation is that while prior appropriation is well-designed to create property rights in water, those rights are too often defined in ways that make them less fungible and thus less susceptible to easy marketing. Fixing this problem has become especially urgent given new stressors on our water supplies that result from climate change.This article offers concrete solutions to promote the development of robust water markets. It begins with a review of the history and law water transfers in the Western United States. It then considers two case studies that help illustrate the opportunities and obstacles to the efficient movement of water. One case study considers the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District and its innovative mechanism for transferring water from its Colorado-Big Thompson Project; the other looks at a still evolving proposal often described as the “Super Ditch,” that seeks to move water from agricultural to urban use without requiring farmers to relinquish control over their water rights. The article then derives lessons from these and other examples and concludes with a series of practical and creative ways for reforming Western water law to help ensure that water gets to where it is needed most efficiently.

Semiquantitative Analysis of Water Appropriations and Allocations in the Upper Rio Grande Basin, Colorado

AbstractA semiquantitative analysis was used to assess the impacts of water rights appropriations and allocations in the Upper Rio Grande (URG) Basin, in Colorado. The study also explores the causes and effects of the changes on collateral elements in the URG agriculture system, namely the San Luis Valley (SLV) in Colorado. Population increases, after the acquisition of the territory from 1854 to 1900, were the major cause of increased acquisitions of surface water rights. By 1912 surface waters were nearly 100% appropriated. The population continued to increase until 1930 after which it remained stable. Water users began making large increases in the number of appropriations of groundwater around 1925, with the majority of increases starting around 1935. As a result, moratoriums were placed on well development in the 1970s and 80s. Individual spikes in water rights acquisitions of surface and groundwater were associated with periodic droughts and high crop prices. Change point time series analysis identi...

Application of water rights priority and natural priority orders to river and reservoir operation systems

Surface water rights in Texas are developed based on “Prior Appropriation Doctrine”. The Texas Water Availability Model, a computer-based simulation model based on water rights priority order, has been used for computing the amount of water supply and determining the amount of water available for a newly requested water right for the past several years. This study compares the water rights priority and natural priority orders by applying it to the largest sixteen reservoirs in the Brazos River Basin, Texas. The water supply reliability, reservoir storage frequency, and stream flows are analyzed corresponding to each priority orders. The natural priority order increases water supply reliability for most reservoirs about 1 to 2% and mean reservoir storage volume located in the upper basin than water rights priority order. The stream flows based on water rights priority order are more regulated than natural priority order by 3 and 5%. The composite priority order is more effective than each priority order in increasing the water supply reliability.

Optimizing Safe Yield Policy Implementation

The presented method enhances groundwater-mandated safe yield management. It is useful for settings that prevent sustained yield or integrated management. To protect hydraulically connected surface water rights, the Utah government’s Cache Valley groundwater management plan proposes that total pumping increase not exceed 84,431 m3/day. To determine how best to spatially distribute additional allowable pumping, stakeholders quantified limits defining acceptable impacts on selected water resource indicators. A new simulation–optimization (S–O) algorithm used these limits while computing optimal spatially distributed perennial yield or safe yield groundwater pumping extraction strategies. The limits prevent unacceptable decreases in: head and net flow between aquifer and surface waters (rivers, surface/subsurface drains, springs, lakes). The optimization objective function maximizes weighted pumping to provide water for 18 growing municipalities. For 16 perennial yield scenarios, computed optimal pumping increases differ in protectiveness toward senior water rights, and range from 16% to 103% of the state plan-proposed increase. Implementing a protective strategy would achieve 90% of the storage changes needed to reach equilibrium within 23 years. Indicator potentiometric heads would reach equilibrium within 10–40 years. At equilibrium, an optimal Cache Valley perennial yield strategy acceptably minimizes net annual non-pumping discharges. By comparison, multi-period 20-year transient groundwater mining optimizations allow more pumping in early years. Pumping then must decline to satisfy seepage and head constraints through year 20. Adverse seepage impact would increase for years thereafter. For situations governed by safe or perennial yield policy, equilibrium-based (steady-state) optimization is very useful. It effectively develops optimal perennial yield strategies.

California Court Clarifies Issues Around Prescriptive Surface Water Rights

According to a recent California appellate court decision, lower riparian owners can acquire prescriptive water rights by adverse use, and the acknowledgment of an upper riparian owner's water rights through failed negotiations does not destroy a lower riparian owner's claim to adverse possession. The court addressed two unsettled issues in California water law, including the following: whether prescriptive water rights in surface water may be perfected between private parties; and, whether recognition by an adverse possessor of a record owner's water rights can defeat prescriptive use.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Water transfers in El Paso County, Texas

Water rights transfers for surface water have taken place in El Paso County in far west Texas for many decades. Historically, these exchanges have primarily occurred between agricultural water users. In recent decades, there have also been transfers from agricultural uses to urban uses. Ongoing commercial and demographic expansion in the El Paso metropolitan economy increases the likelihood of additional farm-to-municipal transfers in future years. Although legal mechanisms have periodically been introduced to allow these exchanges to occur, pricing has not played a central role in the process. At present, transfers of surface water rights in El Paso County occur under fairly rigid conditions.

Markets for Water Rights under Environmental Constraints

The cumulative impact of pollutants on water quality at a given location along a river is a function of prior loadings, as well as pollution and surface flows at that particular site. The question of whether it is possible to maintain water quality under alternative mechanisms for allocating surface water and pollution rights is addressed. We model the optimal allocation of surface water and pollution rights along a river with water quality constraints. Due to cumulative effects, the shadow values of water and pollution rights are contingent on location. It is shown that a Nash equilibrium in a market for tradable surface water rights in conjunction with a market for pollution damages implements the optimal solution. The market supports location-specific prices for both consumptive water rights and pollution damages.

Water availability under the Texas water rights system

Simulation studies of demands on Texas water supplies point to the complexities of administering and modeling a water allocation system.Texas recently established a surface water rights permit system, similar to those of other western states. A simulation study of the Brazos River Basin identified issues and concerns that illustrate the practical complexities of administering and modeling a water allocation system. Key considerations involve sharing of limited supplies by numerous water users during drought, reservoir storage priorities, multiple‐reservoir system operations, water quality constraints, return flows, hydrologic data compilation, and reliability assessment. The issues affecting evaluation of water availability within the Texas water rights system are representative of other states as well.

Groundwater and Surface Water Rights Unrelated

In New Mexico, members of the Corn family claimed groundwater rights relating back to claimed 1894 surface water rights from Arroyo del Macho and 1902 surface water rights from Salt Creek. Expert witnesses from both sides testified during trial that in the area where the Corns' land was situated, the Arroyo del Macho had always carried flood flows. Old reports described Salt Creek as an ephemeral stream. One Corn family member admitted that for the last 30 years, the water in Salt Creek consisted only of flood flows. The trial court ruled against the Corns' claim.