Tradeable Water Withdrawal Permits for Traditionally Riparian Areas
by J. Wayland Eheart, (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 3220 NCEL, MC-250, Urbana, Illinois, 61801) and Jessica J. Cragan, (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 3220 NCEL, MC-250, Urbana, Illinois, 61801)
Section: Water Rights Markets Water Law Session, pp. 1-8, (doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/40430(1999)185)
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| Document type: |
Conference Proceeding Paper |
| Part of: |
WRPMD’99: Preparing for the 21st Century |
| Abstract: |
In a previous paper by the same authors, several methods of defining and allocating water withdrawal permits were compared. On the basis of a modeling study for a small unimpounded Midwestern basin, it was found that water withdrawal permits that were defined to leave a fraction of the streamflowin the stream were very effective, when that fraction was appropriately chosen, at both maintaining minimum streamflows and upholding profits from irrigated agriculture. In the present paper, we address the issues surrounding the consolidation of withdrawal permits through markets. In particular, we determine how the low flow reliability and users’ profits are affected by this regulatory feature. The paper uses the same modeling method and example application as the previous paper, which focuses on irrigated agriculture as the water consuming and profit making economic activity. We envision the existence of a regulatory authority which has already determined how to allocate water to a particular group of riparian surface water users, and which is now considering whether and how to allow those users to trade permits. It wishes to know how such permit trading would affect the frequency of low streamflow incidents and users’ profits. |
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