Ready or not? Learning from 30 years of experimentation with environmental water markets in the Columbia Basin (USA)

Gilson, Gina; Garrick, Dustin

doi:10.4337/9781788976930.00022

Cited by 2 publications

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“…In Australia, where environmental water managers have publicly referred to themselves as ‘the largest irrigator in the basin’ and have participated in the water markets, there has been a discernible shift in communities’ willingness to support environmental water (O’Donnell 2017). This is in stark contrast to western USA, where environmental water managers actively seek to create and renew trust with each water recovery (Gilson & Garrick 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Community perceptions of environmental water: a review

2023

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Summary Allocation of water specifically to the environment (often dubbed ‘environmental water’ or ‘environmental flows’) can be contentious within government, among irrigators and between community members. The reduction in supply of fresh water has led to questions surrounding the efficiencies and ecological value of securing these adequate flows for waterways. This literature review examines the evidence on these perceptions of environmental water allocations, focusing foremost on general public, irrigator, Indigenous and decision-maker perspectives. Existing studies are predominantly in Global North areas such as Australia, Canada and the USA. Two themes featured strongly in the papers: the importance of personal values in the acceptance of environmental water and the perception of fairness in environmental water allocation processes. Although the research area has been expanding, there is still limited representation in types of study, disciplinary backgrounds and study locations, and as such many research opportunities remain.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Community perceptions of environmental water: a review

2023

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“…Additional legal conditions have been identified specifically for environmental water markets. These include legitimizing environmental uses as valid water rights, enabling trading from existing rights to environmental rights, and public and private financing for environmental water transactions (Gilson and Garrick 2021a). Taken together, these conditions depict environmental water markets whose activity is coupled with legal prerequisites.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decoupling environmental water markets from water law

Womble

Townsend

Szeptycki

2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Environmental water markets have emerged as a tool for restoring flows in rivers across the world. Prior literature suggests that certain legal conditions are necessary for these markets to function. However, we find substantial market activity has occurred without these legal conditions through market and legal data collected in five core U.S. Colorado River basin states (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) from 2014 to 2020. Ninety-five percent of the 446 water transactions sidestepped formal legal processes to transfer water rights to the environment. We also find that government regulatory and conservation programs, not private-sector investment, have driven most environmental water market activity. Government spending is the dominant funding source, with 90% of the $53 million spent coming from governments and 68% from the U.S. federal government alone. Finally, our analysis finds that current market activity would be insufficient to stave off future curtailment of critical water users under the Colorado River Compact and that $86–89 million annually in new investment is required to do so. In a basin experiencing a historic megadrought, our analysis suggests prioritizing such new investments over legal reform. Global implications are that such flow restoration is possible where legal regimes for environmental water markets do not already exist.

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Ready or not? Learning from 30 years of experimentation with environmental water markets in the Columbia Basin (USA)

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Community perceptions of environmental water: a review

Community perceptions of environmental water: a review

Decoupling environmental water markets from water law

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