Products / Project record
| Property | Value |
| Name | Impact of Earlier Spring Snowmelt on Water Rights and Administration: A Preliminary Overview of |
| Release Year | 2008 |
| Primary Author | Person
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| Additional Authors | People
Organizations
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| Description | ABSTRACT: The paper reviews the potential for administrative problems/disputes associated with western prior appropriation water rights in those sub-regions experiencing increasingly early spring snowmelt and the lengthening of growing seasons. In those areas, potential problems of two general types are envisioned. First, in those states that link water rights to specific calendar dates (that are becoming increasingly out-of-step with natural hydrographs), the yield and/or utility of those rights can theoretically become increasingly devalued. Second, in states that do not attempt to limit the exercise of rights to specific dates, water consumption under a given right may increase, thereby threatening the yield and reliability of other (particularly more junior) users. These problems can potentially occur at many scales, including interstate basins. To date, the study finds that problems of both types are exceptionally rare, and can be managed using existing administrative discretion and water system flexibility—a situation that is unlikely to persist given additional shifts in streamflows and water demands, and given increases in competition for limited water resources. The authors recommend that water managers explicitly design and operate water system models (to the extent possible) to account for interactions between shifts in streamflow timing and water rights, and that states plan for a growing strain on water administration personnel and systems. |
| Sectors | |
| Source | NGO |
| Keywords | Snowpack, Adaptation, Conservation, Water Law, Water Rights, Policy Recommendations |
| Homepage | http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/publications/ |
