So many uses of our water -- for people, for crops, for wildlife, for electricity, for industry, for preserving a culture -- does one use take precedence over another? And must our use of water for one purpose make it unavailable for other purposes?

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

• Today's needs are all challenges to a doctrine that was formed in another era . . . there is no single priority.
       

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

• We're all in it together . . .
       

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 right.
       

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

• The difficulty now is getting water to Indian tribes . . . without being extraordinarily disruptive to other uses.
       

Bruce Newcomb
Speaker of the House, Idaho Legislature

• I'd like to . . . talk about the instream flows and the state primacy that we had here in Idaho. For example, the Lemhi situation where we had 60 day notices sent out -- but we were able under the Endangered species act and the prior appropriation doctrine to negotiate agreements between willing seller and willing buyer and get a minimum stream flow.
       

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

• The reality on these Indian water rights claims is . . . that they are almost indisputable.
       

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

• Everybody is telling the Indians to quit fishing but nobody is telling the farmer to plant shrubbery or riparian zones around their farm fields.
       

Clive Strong
Chief, Natural Resources Division, Office of the Idaho Attorney General

• We are really missing the major issue, we have one bucket of water that has to serve a multiplicity of purposes and we seem to spend a lot of time fighting over who makes those decisions rather than deciding where the common interests are and . . . we need to look at interests rather than positioning.
       

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

• The point is that no one really has the trump card.
       

Brothers/Keys 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 . . .
       

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

• 'Environmental issues' are no longer dirty words.
       

John Keys
Commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation

• We can craft how we move water.
       

Getches/Fassett exchange

• In the west, we're the most urbanized area in the country . . .
       

Norm Semanko/Jeff Fassett exchange
Semanko: Executive director and general counsel for the Idaho Water Users Association

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

Bill Sedivy/Kay Brothers exchange
Sedivy: Executive director for Idaho Rivers United

• The Boise demand for water is expected to double by 2020 and already the Idaho Department of Water Resources are talking about new dams . . . but there has been little talk of conservation . . .
       

John Keys

• We've got all the water we're ever going to get. They're not making any more.
       

Kay Brothers

• We all have to win.
       

Robert Matt
Wildlife Manager, Coeur d'Alene Tribe

• What sense of obligation needs to be retained in addressing impacts of the past . . . as we look to even an expanded use of capturing water for human needs into the future?
  
       

David Getches

• What often gets overlooked are issues of fairness . . .
       

Kay Brothers

• We can't ignore what happened in the past, but we need to strike compromises.
       

John Keys

• . . . at the time it seemed like the best thing to do.
       

Dave Shaw
Engineer, ERO Resources Corporation, Boise, ID

• People need to eat.
       

John Tracy
Executive Director of the Center for Watersheds and Environmental Sustainability at the Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada

• What are the consequences of going down this path?