Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the Water Banking Category
Click here to view all posts

Water officials mull state’s drought bank; Inefficiencies, expense keep farmers from using system

Posted by: Maven on June 4, 2009 at 2:52 pm

From the Capital Press:

Water managers are working toward a more efficient version of the state’s drought water bank for next year, California’s drought coordinator told the State Board of Food and Agriculture.

The state created a water bank this year for the first time since the early 1990s. Wendy Martin, statewide drought coordinator with the Department of Water Resources, described an efficient, state-managed trading system as a key piece of the state’s future water management.

“Transfers are one of the ways that we can balance the water portfolio,” Martin said. “A transfer system is a way of leveling that market. Some people will get more money for their water, some people will pay less, but it will start to equalize. And … that is the long-term solution, not just related to drought, but for the state’s water-management system. We have to be more effective at that.”

So far, each effort at transferring water has been bogged down in battles with local jurisdictions. Martin said the biggest obstacles to water transfers have come from county governments.

“One of our biggest adversaries – and the people who are suing us now, over this year’s water bank – are the counties,” she said. “Every portion of every transaction has had a fight associated with it. We have to stop fighting about this stuff and figure out what will work.”

Read more from the Capital Press by clicking here.

June 4, 2009 · Filed Under Water Banking

Comments

Leave a Reply