"First in time" water law has created transferable rights for using the water that flows in rivers and streams. Do these rights to water use stand in the way of resolving our problems in allocating the available water? Or can we leave it to market forces to make it evident which uses of water our society thinks are the most important?

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David Getches
Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado School of Law

• Most of the water has already been spoken for . . . we need to reallocate water from the existing uses.
       

John Keys
Commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation

• I can't count the number of times down the river . . . there's ways to do it around the water rights.
       

Norm Semanko/John Keys exchange
Semanko: Executive Director and General Counsel, Idaho Water Users Association

• We have created a water bank.
       

David Getches
Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado School of Law

• If you want water today for another use, you have to buy it . . .
       

Meredith Taylor/Jeff Fassett exchange
Taylor: Yellowstone Program Director, Wyoming Outdoor Council

• Are we favoring industry over instream flow and why is that?
       

David Getches
Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado School of Law

• If you leave it in the stream, there's no evidence that you're actually putting water to beneficial use.
       

Aaron Miles, Sr./David Getches exchange
Miles: Nez Perce Tribe, Director, Natural Resources Department

• Was it deliberate to . . . make the tribes go back to [being] a more junior user?
       

Marti Bridges/John Keys exchange
Bridges: TMDL (total maximum daily load) program manager, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality

• The state of Idaho has only 400 miles of instream water rights approved -- that's less than half a percent of the over a hundred thousand miles of streams.
       

Rick Johnson/Jeff Fassett exchange
Johnson: Executive Director, Idaho Conservation League

• Water in the west has never been a win-win situation for anybody. And it seems that we are headed for . . . a public policy train wreck.
       

David Getches
Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado School of Law

• Most groundwater is connected to a stream underground.
       

David Getches
Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado School of Law

• How do our doctrines serve the past, and how can they serve the present? [The point is] not to let go of the tradition, but to find the flexibility in it.
       

Jeff Fassett
Former Wyoming State Engineer, Fassett currently runs an engineering consulting firm based in Cheyenne, WY

• You need to use "prior use" to serve new purposes.
       

Kay Brothers
Deputy General Manager of Southern Nevada Water Authority Engineering and Operations

• Water banking has provided the flexibility . . .
       

Delbert Farmer
Shoshone-Bannock

• The real issue is . . . the clouds . . . we all know that's where the water comes from. So what is this deal about "prior appropriation" or "first in time" and "beneficial use?" It's the clouds . . . As far as Shoshone Bannock is concerned . . . we lay claims to the clouds . . .
       

Albert Barker
Attorney

• I don't want to leave the impression that the claims for off-reservation rights in particular are indisputable because . . . we are seeing the Winters doctrine attempted to be expanded . . . off of the reservation to make water right claims.
       

John Keys/Kay Brothers exchange

• Without the public input -- it does not work.
       

Wendy Wilson
Organizational development consultant, River Network; Lobbyist and spokesperson for environmental causes

• I'm interested in getting water back in streams and ensuring rivers have water rights for many purposes . . . Why aren't we requiring that every time a water right is transferred from an irrigation to municipal use that the fish, the birds, the wildlife, the Indians all get a 25% kickback?
       

Norm Semanko/Jeff Fassett exchange

• The problem of not having enough water is not a new problem.
       

David Getches/John Keys exchange

• I think the era of the big dam is over . . . conservation and controlling the way we use water can more than double the available supplies.
       

Jeff Fereday/Kay Brothers exchange
Fereday: Attorney, Boise, Idaho

• How does the city of Las Vegas acquire water rights for long term water planning . . . for 20 to 30 yrs down the road to hold now for use later?
       

Bruce Newcomb
Speaker of the House, Idaho Legislature

• We haven't talked about the economics of water . . .
       

John Keys

• We wouldn't buy much water for salmon at $3200/acre-ft.