Cooperation must cover groundwater

States need to exchange information before policy can be set

Patricia R. McCoy
Capital Press

October 19, 2007


SALT LAKE CITY - Interstate cooperation works well when managing shared waterways, but more needs to be done when the shared water source is groundwater.

Information such as the size and recharge resources of aquifers needs to be exchanged between states before they can set management policies, breakout session participants agreed at a water policy conference here.

All agreements on water management must fully recognize the sovereignty of all states, tribes and other entities involved. Federal involvement needs to be kept as small as possible.

Those guidelines came out of one of 12 breakout sessions at the conference.

Private property rights came up at almost every breakout session.

"This conference is about bringing agriculture and urban interests together to discuss what we want our quality of life to be, not fight over property rights," said Duane Smith, chairman of the Western States Water Council.

"We hold private property rights very dear in my home state of Oklahoma ," said Smith, also executive director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. "Oklahomans believe everyone who owns property ought to be able to do with it as they wish for their own economic good and quality of life.

"With that comes the responsibility to use your property so you're not negatively impacting others' property rights," he said. "Land-use planning is about protecting property rights, though some would argue it is not. We have to somehow find a balance."

Developing policy recommendations was a key purpose of the gathering said Phil Ward, director of the Oregon Water Resources Department.

"From what I've seen, all the sessions have taken steps to provide really good, meaningful recommendations to the governors," Ward said. "There are real, solid suggestions going down on paper."

Ward facilitated three breakout sessions, covering such topics as agriculture-to-urban transfers of water rights, interstate streams and Western water problems, and climate change and water supply. It was one of his sessions that brought out the importance of sharing information related to groundwater between states that share it.

Other breakouts covered such topics as integrating growth and water planning, growth and the public interest, data gaps in the research, and congressional action needed to deal with climate change.

Some states have water use reporting requirements, but there's little incentive to report underuse, said Sue Lowry, administrator of the Wyoming State Engineer's Office, and facilitator of the breakout session on data needs and research gaps.

In part, that's because water rights holders face potential loss of part of their right if they fail to fully use the water, especially under the prior appropriation doctrine that governs most water rights in the West, Lowry said while reporting to the conference's final general session.

Her session also discussed integrating groundwater use data with that of surface water, and the need for better science and understanding of how they interrelate, she said.

Old wounds from past water rights fights and adjudications have to be resolved before watershed planning can succeed, participants agreed in a workshop on that topic, said Tom Stiles, chief of watershed planning for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and a breakout session facilitator for that topic.

"Our group agreed watershed planning occurs at all levels and is best at the local level. As the scale varies, so does the complexity and the number of people involved," Stiles said.

"It is a process more than a thing. Data is needed before it can work, and that comes at a price, so money is essential.

"We also agreed that measured success is easy to see at small levels, but the jury is still out on how well it works on larger-scale, more- complex issues," he said.

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