Study Offers Solutions to California Water Problems

September 8, 1999

California can meet water demands of an expanding population, save millions of dollars and preserve environmental quality if the state rejects complex policies of the past and embraces "water markets." The author of a new study says California's water problems are not due to a lack of water but from poor management and allocation of existing supplies.

Published by the Pacific Research Institute, the study claims to show how the $10 billion plan of CALFED, a network of state and federal water agencies, maintains inequities and artificial scarcity by relying on expensive command-and-control policies. It relies on the development and construction of new ground water and/or surface storage in conjunction with "aggressive implementation of water conservation, recycling and a protective water transfer market."

Instead, says study author Erin Schiller, CALFED should privatize irrigation projects when possible; ensure that property rights to water remain secure; allow water rights holders to trade those rights more freely; contract out to a private group to create and operate a statewide water transfer clearinghouse; create property rights for ground water as well as surface water; reform or abolish the California Water Plan's Bulletin 10 process; advise CALFED to promote water markets rather than costly and unnecessary storage projects, and promote interstate water markets as the basis for California's "4.4 Plan."

The title of the study is Ending California's Water Crisis: A Market Solution to the Politics of Water. More information is available on the PRI web site at http://www.pacificresearch.org