Addressing California’s Water Crisis: A Feasibility and Adequacy Assessment of the “Special Water Market” Proposal

Abstract

Given that California is the largest agricultural producer and exporter in the United States, is increasingly facing the stresses and expectations of a growing population, and is home to reserves of ecologically-important species, California’s current water crisis and ongoing drought calls for immediate and constructive action. Plagued by the consequences of decades of poor water management, current state officials have and will continue to have to prioritize among water users – namely agricultural, urban, and environmental users – when allocating California’s scarce water resources. During this current drought, as during previous ones, the management of water for environmental uses has emerged as one of the most, if not the most, contentious issues. This thesis seeks to determine whether a specific proposal that addresses both environmental and human interests (the “special water market” proposal) would be both feasible in implementation and adequate in providing sufficient water resources to alleviate California’s water concerns during times of drought as well as during times of drought recovery. This thesis ultimately finds that the proposal is both infeasible and inadequate at present due to environmental, legal, economic, political, and social obstacles, but provides valuable insights that can be applied to the reconsideration of current policies and the formulation and implementation of future proposals.