European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 6, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Daily Magazine arid West realizing water is a scalable crop by Robert Lindsey new York times for More than a Century westerners have fought Over stolen occasionally killed for in a Challenge to one of the oldest traditions of the they Are starting to broker it like crude fresh oranges or bushels of according to a free Market for water is emerging in parts of the where until now most water has been sold by Federal and state reclamation agencies at fixed rates kept Low by Public prodded by environmentalists and political leaders in water Short communities who complain that the present system encourages waste by pricing water too Public agencies and others entitled to More water than they need have begun to negotiate cautiously to sell part of their excess allotments to those who need it particularly growing youre seeing the emergence of what i Call water in which growers have an additional crop besides fruit or said Larry a Republican California assemblyman whose growing san Diego District faces potentially serious water shortages in the were going to see in California a new profession called water and i think youll see some closing of deals within a few proponents envisage a Market developing in which surplus water available to one grower or water District is auctioned to the highest in some they surplus water would be Chan need physically to the in Sellers for a Transfer their right to draw water from Rivers or dams to in the most ambitious project to an irrigation District that owns the right to take Large amounts of water from the Colorado River As it flows through the dry Imperial Valley 200 Miles Southeast of los Angeles has hired an engineering company to undertake a conservation project intended to save millions of Gallons a year of this water now lost through Evaro seepage and the the Parsons corporation of nearby would then sell the rights to use the now wasted water to the highest in another san Diego officials Are negotiating to buy Large amounts of water from a group of Denver entrepreneurs who Are seeking to dam a tributary of the Colorado River More than Miles from san the san Diego officials would increase the volume of water that flows from the Rocky mountains into the Colorado River and travels South toward mexi for a san Diego would get the right to draw the additional for the need to develop additional sources of water is especially important because in it is scheduled to lose a significant amount of its rights to water from the Colorado River As a result of a United states supreme court ruling in 1964 granting the water to the emerging enthusiasm for a free Market for water is colliding with longheld traditions in the West and bitter regional and could face Legal in a Region where much of the land is naturally water has Long been a kind of elixir that can make the poor wealthy and the Rich allowing growers to make deserts Bloom and developers to turn wasteland into Sites for a Complex body of Law has evolved Over the years that determines the ownership of water the amount allocated each Farmer City or local irrigation District has been set by decades of negotiation and once growers and water agencies got an they resisted efforts to share even when they had an excess of because of a provision in water Law that in if they did not use their full it could be taken away from As a according to critics of the present system such As Thomas a lawyer for the environmental defense growers have been encouraged to Plant crops on marginal land and use water there Hast been any incentive to Graff the critics charge that profligate use is further encouraged by unrealistically Low prices for water charged by Federal and state agencies that operate the networks of dams and canals that bring the water to growers and other the critics attribute the situation to lobbying by the Large corporate agribusiness concerns that use most of the in the san Joaquin Valley of Central for where pumped in water has created one of the worlds most productive agricultural most corporate growers pay less than for each or cubic of irrigation two University of California researchers estimated last year As a result of a pricing Structure that favors residents of the los Angeles area Are subsidizing corporate Farmers by More than million a much of it to keep sub marginal land in pro Graff argues that the Price of water should be set according to Market according to its if water was priced he and other critics less would be wasted and the state and Federal governments would have to build fewer Multi million Dollar aqueducts and members of a bipartisan legislative committee agreed saying that much of californian future Appe Tite for water could be met without new dams simply by a loosing the Economy Energy of a free you have a Bunch of folks with a 1930s mentality trying to solve the problems of the said Larry a California democratic assemblyman who helped write the he was alluding to leaders of two of the states most influential the metropolitan water which wholesales water to communities in Southern Cal and the Kern county water which delivers water to growers in the Southern end of the san Joaquin they say the state can make up the impending loss of the water that will be shifted to Arizona in december Only by building new canals and reservoirs costing More than in recent legislators in new Utah and California have made it Legal to Transfer water rights temporarily from one person or Agency to another without giving up the rights in the Cas ing the Way for development of a free Market in the buying and Selling of water Legal and political questions still sur round the while lawyers for the Parsons Corpora for contend it is Legal for the Imperial irrigation District to sell water it receives from the Colorado River at a profit even though it originates in a system built with Federal the metropolitan water District contends it is illegal and has made Clear it will sue to Block the if carried would end the monopoly the metropol Itan water District now has Over imported water in Southern the District has informally threatened a similar Legal attack to halt consummation of a tentative decision by the san Diego county water authority to buy water from a group of Denver despite contentions by advocates that Selling water embodies the free Market ideology favored by the Rea Gan the United states Bureau of Recla which manages Federal water systems in the has so far refused to endorse the its reluctance seems at least partly because of expected complaints Over profiteering by the owners of resources created by Federal or state tax another uncertainty is whether communities that own water rights will be Able to forget the Dee Felt rooted in the culture of the to let Ting someone else have their new York times photo canal carries water to Southern California from the Colorado 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