Western governors discuss water rights

Governors from the nation's western states tackled the issue of water rights Tuesday during a policy conference designed to drive consensus.

Federal experts urged state leaders to weigh water needs over water wants, while state leaders pleaded for less federal oversight and more flexible water agreements.

"Clearly for those of us in the West, water is a very significant issue," said Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican. "It's an emotional topic and sometimes so emotional that reasonable thought goes out the window."

The discussion opened the Western Governors' Association's two-day conference at The Venetian, including governors from 19 states, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Water conservation and efficiency remained favorite solutions among government leaders eager to squeeze the most use out of a limited resource.

James Horne, Australia's deputy secretary for water, offered solutions from his homeland, where he said facilities in major cities help convert rain into usable water and farming communities thrive around efficient irrigation systems.

"People have to stop thinking of it as a free good," Horne said. "We must recognize it as a scarce commodity and price it accordingly."

But Anne Castle, assistant secretary for water and science at the U.S. Department of the Interior, said protecting the world's water supply from unnecessary growth could yield better results than simply urging people to turn off the faucet.

For example, she said government officials should weigh the projected water cost of any proposed development before approving construction.

"You know that when you are in a hole and you want to get out, the first thing you have to do is stop digging," she said.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter complained that plans to protect his state's prized Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer by creating wells or other infrastructure to keep the water from leaking toward the Pacific Ocean require wrestling for permits with federal land managers.

"We've got Lake Erie, only Lake Erie is actually the Eastern Snake River Aquifer," the Republican governor said, referring to estimates that the aquifer contains as much water as the great lake. "Yet in order to maintain a healthy level of that, we have got to get across a lot of government ground. ... The question is, have we created a monster here?"

Gov. Jim Gibbons said changing consumers' perception of water availability has helped move policy in the right direction.

"There is nothing more difficult in any state, in any political arena, than talking about something that people feel is their constitutional right, and that's water. That's clean water," he said.