The saying “water is life” is true across the United States, especially in much of the Southwest because of its arid and semi-arid climate. Sufficient water for people and wildlife is an increasingly hot-button issue across the Southwest. Fortunately, there are many innovative ideas that combine law, policy and technology to provide solutions to water supply issues.
Water
Practical Solutions for Use and Conservation
Effective, Innovative Conservation
- Property rights and market-based approaches that would clarify rights to water, permit trading and encourage conservation.
- Defend and reinforce states’ sovereignty over groundwater because states tend to be more flexible and innovative than one-size-fits-all federal policies.
- Make innovations such as water collection and impoundment more feasible by lowering regulatory barriers at the federal level.
- Practical local and state innovations such as recycling water as well as capturing storm water for use in recharging aquifers.
There are myriad other innovative ways to use and conserve water more effectively, but a major impediment is fake environmental groups that try to force their views on others through lawsuits. These organizations would be better served using their annual budgets, which combined total hundreds of millions of dollars, to implement actual water conservation measures. Water use is a difficult, contentious issue only made worse by lawsuits.
