WATER WARS: Sharing the Colorado River
All Rights Reserved.
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright ©
2019 Bruce J. Carter, Ph.D., and Douglas Winslow Cooper, Ph.D. v3.0
The opinions
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THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PRAISE FOR WATER WARS
“In Water Wars:
Sharing the Colorado River, Dr. Carter and Dr. Cooper provide a
comprehensive accounting of the all-too-many historical and current contexts
where human conflict has arisen over access and use of limited fresh water
around the globe. They review useful analysis frameworks from which to better
understand sustainable solutions for sharing water from one of North America’s
most important sources-- the Colorado River basin. For those that want a
glimpse into a world where we must treat fresh water as the fundamental, and
limited, resource it is, and what to do about it, this book is an important
resource.”
Dr.
William C. Schulz III, Director, Walden University Center
for Social Change Professor of Strategic Management & Leadership
DEDICATION
We
dedicate this work to those endeavoring to assure adequate supplies of water to
inhabitants of the Colorado River Basin and those dependent on water from the
Basin, along with those who are supporting preparing for whatever level of
climate change awaits us.
Also, I [BJC] dedicate this book to my parents, who are
deceased.
Despite having only third-grade and
seventh-grade educations, they taught me that hard work pays off and never to
quit; moreover, to my beautiful bride: stay strong, dear, soon your childhood
dreams
and blessings are about to become true. Furthermore, thank
you for always encouraging me and standing by me during the good and bad times,
helping me to keep the faith.
I [DWC] dedicate this book to our friends and family and especially to Tina Su Cooper, my wife for
over three decades now, my forever love.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I [BJC] gratefully acknowledge the many friends,
colleagues, teachers, archivists, and other public policy scholars, as well,
who assisted, advised, and supported our research and writing efforts over the
past year. Primarily, I express my gratitude and sincere appreciation to
Michael J. Dowling, who introduce me to Douglas Winslow Cooper, whose
friendship, hospitality, knowledge, and wisdom have supported, enlightened, and
entertained me over the last year of his mentorship. All have consistently
helped me keep perspective on what is essential in life and shown me how to
deal with reality.
I [DWC] thank the scholars and journalists whose work has
provided the basis for ours, as we have “stood on the shoulders of giants”
[Isaac Newton] to get a better view of prudent management of precious water
supplies, particularly as this applies to the Colorado River Basin. I also
thank my co-author, Bruce J. Carter, for our highly congenial collaboration,
and for the opportunity to participate in this project.
FOREWORD
Asked
to write the foreword for Water Wars:
Sharing the Colorado River, which deals with potential future drinking
water shortages due to water pollution, population growth, toxic chemicals, and
climate change, I was honored and reflective. We live in a world where our road
has many forks and takes us on some incredible journeys. This book investigates
the challenge of impending water scarcity, emphasizing preserving and
protecting our planet’s drinking water; among other intellectual resources, the
book relies substantially on the work of an international prize-winning economist,
the late Elinor Ostrom, who emphasized eight principles of the management of
common-pool resources (CPRs), such as watersheds.
There are four main thematic parts to this informative
book. The first presents some historical background, noting frequent and
longstanding global water conflicts. The second provides an overview of the
Colorado River Basin and the laws governing the allocation and use of its
water. Third, the book discusses environmental norms and the practices
governing the use of common-pool resources. Finally, the book reviews solution
options to an impending shortage of clean water in the Basin, along with
discussion and recommendations. It ends with several valuable appendices,
including one on cyber security as it applies to water resource management.
By providing a historical context, Water Wars makes an ambitious effort at providing remedies to an
impending water scarcity challenge. Environmentalists have become increasingly
aware of the economic and social factors affecting shared water use. While
environmentalists will appreciate the significance of the facts and analyses
presented by the authors, many government officials, international
organizations, military planners, and political activists will also find this
scholarly book useful.
The breadth of the analyses presented in this book make it
exceptional in a field where there are continuing disagreements about man-made
climate-change. Water Wars: Sharing the
Colorado River does not claim to present the only solutions nor does it demand
specific actions; it neither defends nor questions the predictions of
significant climate change. Instead, the authors present a set of facts and
alternative positions.
The points the authors make in Water Wars are solid and important, and its arguments in favor of a
heightened awareness of a possible global water supply shortage are convincing.
Early action can prevent later regret.
This book will inspire thought and, I hope, constructive,
informed action.
Gen.
Johnnie E Wilson, (Ret. Army)
Former Commanding General, United
States Army Materiel Command (CG AMC) from 1996 to 1999
PREFACE
“Water, Water
everywhere…. Nor any
drop to drink.” So lamented poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner. In
a few years, in some parts of the world, especially Africa, there is likely to
be too little water to drink or to use for agricultural irrigation or even for
industrial production, despite some three-fourths of the Earth’s surface being
covered by water or ice. We have written this book to join those who have
sounded the alarm about a possible water shortage and to help explain the
global and the American situations, with an emphasis on the Colorado River
Basin.
After some discussion of the global condition and trends,
we turn our focus to the Colorado River Basin, the area in the U.S. with the
greatest danger from a future shortfall of clean, drinkable (potable) water. As
Opinion Contributors Christy Plumer and Julie Hill-Gabriel wrote in the
September 15, 2018 issue of The Hill:
This
year, the Colorado River Basin only received about a third of its average
annual supply of snow-melt runoff. Such low runoff, coupled with continuing
demand for water from cities, farmers, and ranchers, may stretch the Colorado
River system beyond its breaking point. That’s a perilous prospect for a river
that supplies drinking water to nearly 40 million people, supports 16 million
jobs, generates $1.4 trillion in economic benefits, and irrigates nearly 6
million acres of farmland.
A
recent report from the Bureau of Reclamation (2012) projects a 57 percent
chance of shortages on the Colorado River in 2020 and beyond, and it indicates
that water levels on Lake Powell, one of the river’s two main reservoirs, could
drop very far and very fast — to the point where people in California, Arizona,
or Nevada could have their supplies cut off without a say.
The
impacts of these conditions are already being felt on the ground: Colorado
closed the Yampa River to fishing and boating in July, and then, for the first
time ever, also cut water to some users in September. [https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/406836-the-colorado-river-is-headed-fora-water-shortage]
A future water shortage is likely to aggravate the
relationships in the Basin that have grown up around allocation of water. We
note the work of the Pacific Institute, which has provided a detailed
chronology of over 500 wars or conflicts involving water access as a trigger, a
weapon, or a casualty of the conflict; [https://www.worldwater.org/
water-conflict/]. In 2017 alone, nearly 50 such conflicts occurred, all of them
overseas, not in America.
We present the various American legal modalities currently
in place for handling, for adjudicating, such disputes without violence:
Colorado’s Law of the River, contrasted with Riparian law, and proposals for a
marketplace of water resource utilization rights. Recent work by the late,
eminent economist Elinor Ostrom on managing common pool resources is
highlighted here. In the appendices, we present the Water Cycle and discuss
some tangential issues as well: cyber security in managing water allocation,
waterborne illnesses, and the use of advanced engineering statistics approaches
(Bayesian analysis) to the optimization of water usage.
We hope our book will prove of value to those concerned
about the future supplies of clean water in a period with expected increases in
public demand and possible diminution of supply due to climatic changes.
Bruce
J. Carter, Ph.D. Douglas Winslow Cooper, Ph.D.
Summer
2019
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments i
Foreword iii
Preface v
Chapter 1: Impending Crisis 1
The Water
Cycle 2
Shortages
Imminent 2
The
American Southwest 6
Chapter 2: Global Impact 8
Multiple
Uses 8
Worldwide
Trends In Water Use 10
Water
Shortage As A Significant Global Risk 14
What Fuels
The Shortage Of Water Resources? 15
Improper Handling Of Water Resources Can Have
Catastrophic
Consequences 18
Water Waste
20
Causes Of
The Water Crisis 20
Global
Warming 21
Chapter 3: Water Conflicts 26
Risk
Reduction 27
Water
Conflicts 2017 29
Chapter 4: The Colorado River Basin 34
The
Colorado River 35
Tributaries
37
The
Western U.S. (Gallagher, 2017) 37
The Future
38
Chapter 5: The Law Of The River (Colorado River)
45
Water Law 45
Chapter 6: Riparian Law 51
Explanation
Of Riparian Rights 52
Chapter 7: Environmental Markets 55
Water
Marketing Issues 55
Environmental
Markets 55
Why
Environmental Markets Now? 76
Chapter 8: Does The Colorado River Itself Need
Rights? 77
Chapter 9: Managing The Commons 80
Game Theory
And Practice 84
Studying
Institutions In Field Settings 86
Similarities
Among These Examples 90
Some
Complexities Of L.A. Water Rationing 91
“Analyzing
Institutional Failures And Fragilities” 97
“A Challenge
To Scholarship In The Social Sciences” 116
About
Elinor Ostrom 117
Chapter 10: Policy Options 119
Virtual
Water 120
International
Activities 121
Tax
Policies 124
“The Colorado River And The
Inevitability Of Institutional
Change” 124
Chapter 11: Evaluation Of Options 128
Water
Supply Scenarios 129
Water
Demand Scenarios 129
Options And
Strategies 130
Evaluation
Of Options 130
Study
Limitations 131
Future
Considerations And Next Steps 132
Disclaimer
132
Some Equity
Issues 133
Chapter 12: Discussion 135
Chapter 13: Recommendations 138
Appendix 1: Water Crisis, Flint, Michigan,
2014-2019 145
Appendix 2: The Water Cycle 149
Appendix 3: Cyber Security Issues 152
Appendix 4: Waterborne Illnesses 161
Appendix 5: Applying Bayes Theorem To Hydrology 165
Discussion 169
Glossary (After Gallagher, 2017) 171
Physical 171
Legal 172
References 174
Bibliography 182
About The Authors 186
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I will be serializing here weekly the Microsoft Word transcription of the final galley proof .pdf copy ot WATER WARS, and the book itself is most conveniently found at amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Water-Wars-Sharing-Colorado-River-ebook/dp/B07VGNLSMX/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=water+wars+by+carter+and+cooper&qid=1577030877&sr=8-1
or at DWC's amazon.com author's book title list https://www.amazon.com/s?k=douglas+winslow+cooper&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss
or at DWC's amazon.com author's book title list https://www.amazon.com/s?k=douglas+winslow+cooper&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss
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