579 



participation worthwhile, and potentially make available almost 2 

 million acre feet of water. 



Institutions now allow the transfer of conserved water to fishery 

 purposes in each state, but their success so far is dubious. In 

 Idaho, a water bank allows rentals to fanners or for fish 

 purposes, but significant obstacles discourage water trading for 

 fish purposes. A senior rights holder who rents water for 

 downstream fish purposes becomes subject to water bank rule 3.6, 

 which accords that farmer lowest priority for reservoir space the 

 next year. The possibility of losing next year's water supply 

 has discouraged a number of potential rentals. Thousands of acre 

 feet of water remain in Idaho reservoirs at the end of some 

 irrigation seasons. Removing such barriers to interstate water 

 and salmon commerce could facilitate the voluntary transfer of 

 surplus or conserved water to fish. 



No discussion of obstacles to improved water management would be 

 complete without mention of the price of water. Farmers have 

 less incentive to manage water wisely when water costs a few 

 dollars per acre foot. The most affordable form of water 

 conservation, irrigation scheduling and management, can improve 

 efficiencies by over 10 percent. Yet many farmers in the 

 Northwest use primitive management techniques because water is 

 cheaper than labor. Development of water markets or tiered 

 pricing systems at the district level could stimulate 

 conservation. 



Of the nearly 8,000,000 million AF of water shifted to fish 

 purposes in each of the past two years, farmers have put forward 

 only about 100,000 AF per year. Those farmers received 

 compensation. Claims that farmers are being called upon to do 

 more than their share for salmon overlook the low participation 

 rate from the agricultural sector to date, the fact that proposed 

 transfers would be compensated, and the extensive adverse impacts 

 of irrigation diversions and pollution on salmon. 



Recommendations: NRDC believes that a combination of voluntary, 

 compensated transfers and administrative changes by the Bureau 

 are needed to improve water management for streamflow purposes. 

 The highest priority steps should be: 



^^Hamilton, Joel R. and Norman K. Whittlesey. Contingent Water 

 Markets for Salmon Recovery, Natural Resources Defense Council, 

 1992. The estimates of potential leases should not be considered 

 additive with the estimates of conservation potential, since an 

 option leasing program would encourage a combination of 

 conservation and land fallowing. 



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