State Legislators Focused on Trends and Emerging Concerns in Western Water
The Council of State Governments (Western chapter), comprised of state legislators and legislative staff, recently convened in Jackson Wyoming to review a variety of challenging issues facing the western states, including water.听 The Getches-Wilkinson Center was asked to participate in the lively review of trends and emerging concerns in western water, with a focus on those issues most likely to demand action from state legislatures.
Three interrelated issues dominated the discussion.听 First, the increasing impact of climate change in the West, especially in the arid and semi-arid regions, is rapidly intensifying water scarcity challenges.听 This is best shown by the unfolding interstate crisis on the Colorado River, which is quite likely to require the individual basin states to implement new (and often painful) coping strategies. 听Second, this increased competition for water, when combined with other trends (in subjects as diverse as foreign trade and immigration) continue to strain the viability of ranches and farms throughout the West.听 Agriculture, especially small-scale family farms, are in decline in many (if not most) pockets of the West.听 And third, the 鈥渇ederal apparatus鈥 of agencies, expertise, programs, and other resources to deal with these challenges is being aggressively culled, shifting the burden of problem-solving increasingly to the states and state legislators.听 It is, unfortunately, a perfect storm of bad news.
State decision-makers are finding these challenges particularly burdensome as they offer few opportunities for win-win solutions, and are of a scale (and cost) that is beyond the resources of many states.听 Nonetheless, dispute the troubling nature of the trends and emerging concerns, most participants remain hopeful that discussing experiences with each other through the CSG-West network will help identify viable paths forward.听
