Water Markets: Western Water Transfers from Agriculture to Urban Uses, 1987-2005

摘要: There is considerable pressure to re-allocate water from traditional agricultural uses meet growing urban demand. For a variety of reasons, markets are more complicated than those for other resources, such as land. In this paper we describe and some the legal regulatory issues affecting them present new data set that provides most comprehensive view allocation trading available. The detail how currently transferred within across two major sectors, agriculture urban. It also reveals contractual forms used Introduction. Farmers in American West use roughly 80 percent region’s water, often lowvalued or subsidized crops, alfalfa, cotton, rice. typically pay only pumping conveyance costs not its scarcity value. Accordingly, much low value, whereas at margin, values greater areas. As result, there significant allocative gains moving uses. 1992, Griffin Boadu reported value agriculture, capitalized over 50 years, was $300 $2,300 per acre-foot (approximately 326,000 gallons) Rio Grande Valley Texas. Urban values, same period, ranged $6,500 $21,000 acre-foot. average transfer produced net benefits $10,000 acre foot.For contemporary evidence, California, an semiconductor industry produces $980,000 gross state revenue; grow cotton alfalfa generates $60. Groundwater farming near Marana, Pima County, Arizona approximately $25 acre-foot, Tucson $700. 1 Glennon ( 2005,1883-85). pointed out by Hanemann (2005, note 29), conditional historically true areas where metering did become common until well into 20 century. 2 (1992, 274-5). 3 See Peter Gleick, Pending Deal Would Undermine State’s Water Solutions, Sacramento Bee, Feb. 25, 2005, B7.