Water marketing is the transfer or sale of water or water rights
from one user to another, typically from an agricultural to an
urban water agency, often without investing in new infrastructure
With private investors poised to profit from water scarcity in
the west, US senator Elizabeth Warren and representative Ro
Khanna are pursuing a bill to prohibit the trading of water as
a commodity. The lawmakers will introduce the bill on Thursday
afternoon, the Guardian has learned. “Water is not a commodity
for the rich and powerful to profit off of,” said Warren, the
progressive Democrat from Massachusetts. … Water-futures
trading allows investors – including hedge funds, farmers and
municipalities – to trade water and water rights as a
commodity, similar to oil or gold. The practice is currently
limited to California, where the world’s first water futures
market was launched. So far, the market hasn’t taken off,
dampened by the reality that the physical trade of water in the
state has been limited. After a couple of wet years in
California, the price of water futures has also plummeted.
Pretty much every time I write about the amount of Colorado
River water that is consumed to irrigate alfalfa and hay,
readers respond with a comment or question about how much of
the alfalfa — and therefore Colorado River water — is shipped
overseas. … It is true that Western farms export alfalfa
to foreign countries. … But there’s a big caveat here: Many
farms in Arizona — and most if not all of the Saudi Arabia
owned ones — irrigate with groundwater, not with water diverted
from the Colorado River.
One of the biggest battles over Colorado River water is being
staged in one of the west’s smallest rural enclaves.Tucked into
the bends of the lower Colorado River, Cibola, Arizona, is a
community of about 200 people. … Nearly a decade ago,
Greenstone Resource Partners LLC, a private company backed by
global investors, bought almost 500 acres of agricultural land
here in Cibola. In a first-of-its-kind deal, the company
recently sold the water rights tied to the land to the town of
Queen Creek, a suburb of Phoenix, for a $14m gross profit. More
than 2,000 acre-feet of water from the Colorado River that was
once used to irrigate farmland is now flowing, through a canal
system, to the taps of homes more than 200 miles away.
As water interests in the Colorado
River Basin prepare to negotiate a new set of operating
guidelines for the drought-stressed river, Amelia Flores wants
her Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to be involved in the
discussion. And she wants CRIT seated at the negotiating table
with something invaluable to offer on a river facing steep cuts
in use: its surplus water.
CRIT, whose reservation lands in California and Arizona are
bisected by the Colorado River, has some of the most senior water
rights on the river. But a federal law enacted in the late 1700s,
decades before any southwestern state was established, prevents
most tribes from sending any of its water off its reservation.
The restrictions mean CRIT, which holds the rights to nearly a
quarter of the entire state of Arizona’s yearly allotment of
river water, is missing out on financial gain and the chance to
help its river partners.
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at California
groundwater and whether its sustainability can be assured by
local, regional and state management. For more background
information on groundwater please refer to the Foundation’s
Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater.
Although some water districts have coordinated use of surface
water and groundwater for years ,conjunctive use has become the
catchphrase when it comes to developing additional water supply
for the 21st century. This article focuses on conjunctive use. It
includes background information explaining how conjunctive use
works, discusses the potential storage capacity, provides an
overview of the hurdles that must be overcome to develop a
successful project, and profiles several projects.
The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides
background information on water rights, types of transfers and
critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in
1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on
groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River
transfers and the role of private companies in California’s
developing water market.
Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced
fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the State Water Project provides
an overview of the California-funded and constructed State Water
Project.
The State Water Project is best known for the 444-mile-long
aqueduct that provides water from the Delta to San Joaquin Valley
agriculture and southern California cities. The guide contains
information about the project’s history and facilities.
Water marketing is the transfer or sale of water or water rights
from one user to another, typically from an agricultural to an
urban water agency, often without investing in new infrastructure
Most exchanges involve a transfer of the resource itself, not a
transfer of the right to use the water.
Reallocating the available water on a supply-and-demand basis is
viewed by proponents as the best financial, political and
environmental means of accommodating an increase in population.