Transcript

Wendy Wilson: ensuring rivers have water rights for many purposes

Hi, my name is Wendy Wilson and I am interested in getting water back into streams and making sure that rivers have water rights for many purposes. It seems like in a changing West and in a climate that is even changing with more and more droughts, the system is facing bankruptcy and you guys are the bankruptcy court. The Bureau of Reclamation says they have to follow state water laws, and the state water laws favor development. So I am wondering if the four of you can answer one little question: how flexible is the prior appropriation doctrine to change as things change? For example, why aren't we requiring that every time a water right is transferred from irrigation to municipal use, that the fish, the birds, the wildlife, the Indians get a 25% kickback? Why doesn't that happen and can the prior appropriation doctrine change and be flexible enough to handle that kind of an idea?

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