A solution to protect stream flows

Choose your description. In the West, water has been called more precious than gold, more likely to start fights than insults to a man's wife or, to coin a more modern phrase, more valuable than all the oil buried beneath all the dictatorships in the world.

But in a rapidly growing West, stream flows are just as important as the water used for irrigation or drinking and bathing. If too much of a stream is diverted, fish die and the quality of the water that is left is impaired.

Trout Unlimited, a conservation group that has been worried about such things for 50 years, has come up with a private-market solution to this that is worth strong consideration. Specifically, state lawmakers should consider making changes that would allow this solution to happen.

The change would allow private non-profit organizations, such as Trout Unlimited, to find willing sellers who agree to either lease or sell water rights for in-stream flow in exchange for money or other considerations. The ideal scenario goes like this: A farmer for many years has been diverting water for irrigation. Most of that water leaks into the ground before reaching its target, meaning the farmer actually uses much less than he diverts. A private nonprofit group offers to buy or lease an amount equal to the water that is leaking away, which it then maintains in the original stream. In exchange, it provides the equipment and technology that allows the farmer to irrigate more effectively with less water, and that allows diverted water to reach its target without leaking away.

The farmer loses nothing. But the people of the state gain a lot because less water is diverted from its source.

Currently, this type of arrangement is illegal in Utah. Only the state has the right to obtain water to protect in-stream flows. Utah lawmakers have been reluctant through the years to mess with water law, for obvious reasons. They have been reluctant even to remove a tax subsidy from water companies, despite urging from the governor.

But this proposal contains several safeguards against abuse. The state engineer would have to certify any such arrangement, which protects all existing water users downstream. It would allow only nonprofit groups or political subdivisions of the state of Utah to buy or lease in-stream flow rights. Because virtually every basin in Utah has been overappropriated, there is little chance that in-stream flow water will be exported to another state.

At the least, this is an idea that deserves serious consideration. In a state that gets less rain than all but Nevada, people should be concerned about preserving stream flows.