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Water is the lifeblood of the American 

West and the foundation of its economy. 

More than a century ago, American 

pioneers began harnessing the water of the 

West, opening vast new lands for 

settlement and development. Today, the 

American West is the fastest growing 

region of the country. Water is its scarcest 

resource.

Water 2025 is intended to focus attention 

on the reality that explosive population 

growth in western urban areas, the 

emerging need for water for environmental 

and recreational uses, and the national 

importance of the domestic production of 

food and fiber from western farms and 

ranches are driving major conflicts between 

these competing uses of water. 

Water 2025 recognizes that state and local 

governments should have a leading role in 

meeting these challenges, and that the 

Department of the Interior should focus its 

attention and existing resources on areas 

where scarce federal dollars can provide 

the greatest benefits to the West and the 

rest of the Nation.

Water 2025: 

Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West 

Today, in some areas of the 

West, existing water supplies 

are, or will be, inadequate to 

meet the water demands of 

people, cities, farms, and the 

environment even under normal 

water supply conditions. 

2
Water 2025: 

Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West

Since 1866, federal water law and 

policy has deferred to states in the 

allocation and administration of 

water within their boundaries. 

This policy will be honored and 

enhanced by Water 2025.

!Existing water supply 

infrastructure must be maintained 

and modernized so that it will 

continue to provide water and 

power.

!Enhanced water conservation, use 

efficiency, and resource monitoring 

will allow existing water supplies to 

be used more effectively. 

!Collaborative approaches and 

market based transfers will 

minimize conflicts between 

demands for water for people, for 

cities, for farms, and for the 

environment.

!Research to improve water 

treatment technology, such as 

desalination, can help increase 

water supplies in critical areas.

!Existing water supply 

infrastructure can provide additional 

benefits for existing and emerging 

needs for water by eliminating 

institutional barriers to storage and 

delivery of water to other uses 

while protecting existing uses and 

stakeholders.

Water 2025 has two purposes. First, 

it provides a basis for a public 

discussion of the realities that face 

the West so that decisions can be 

made at the appropriate level in 

advance of water supply crises. 

Second, Water 2025 sets forth a 

framework to identify the problems, 

solutions, and a plan of action to 

focus the conversation as the 

Department of the Interior works with 

states, tribes, local government, and 

the private sector to meet water 

supply challenges. This framework 

includes: 

" Six principles to guide us as we 

address systemic water problems. 

" Five realities that drive water 

crises. 

" Four key tools to help us 

proactively manage our scarce water.

The Six Principles

!Solutions to complex water supply 

issues must recognize and respect 

state and federal water rights, 

contracts, and interstate compacts or 

decrees of the United States 

Supreme Court that allocate the right 

to use water. 

3
Water 2025: 

Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West

The Bureau of Reclamationís 

Fiscal Year 2004 budget requests 

$11 million for the Western 

Water Initiative, the first step in 

laying the foundation for 

addressing current and future 

water needs.

Implementation and enforcement of 

the federal Endangered Species Act 

is far more effective if a water 

supply crisis is avoided through 

collaborative efforts than through 

lengthy litigation or managing water 

supply issues on an emergency basis.

The Five Realities

Five interrelated realities of water 

management are creating crises in 

important areas in the West. These 

realities are:

ïExplosive population growth

ïWater shortages exist

ïWater shortages result in conflict

ïAging water facilities limit options

ïCrisis management is not effective

Water 2025 does not pretend to be 

a complete solution to the complex 

water needs of the West. 

Principles of federalism and fiscal 

realities make it clear these 

decisions cannot and should not be 

driven from the federal level. 

Instead, they should be based on 

local and regional support.

Water 2025 is a commitment by the 

Department of the Interior to work 

with states, tribes, local 

governments and the public to 

address the realities of water 

supply challenges in the West. 

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Reality Number 1:

Explosive Population Growth in Arid Areas

5

Explosive population growth is occurring in areas where water supplies 

are limited and the demand for water is increasing.
Reality Number 1:

Explosive Population Growth in Arid Areas

6

Urban growth in the West presents water management challenges 

that must be met if we are to avoid bitter conflicts that may have 

significant adverse social, economic, and environmental impacts.
Reality Number 1:

Explosive Population Growth in Arid Areas

Some areas in the Western United States receive less than one-fifth of the 

annual precipitation that other areas of the country enjoy. Adding explosive 

urban growth to existing uses in these areas increases pressure on a limited 

resource ñ water.

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In some areas the water supply will not 

be adequate to meet all demands for 

water even in normal water years. 

Inevitable droughts merely magnify the 

impacts of water shortages.

Severe droughts can have dramatic 

effects. During 2002: 

ïRainfall in the Colorado River basin was 

the lowest in recorded history.

ïRio Grande flows in New Mexico were at 

13 percent of normal; Elephant Butte 

Reservoir held only 19 percent of its 

capacity, the lowest water level since the 

dam was built in the early 1900s.

ïBoise, Idaho, had one of its driest 

calendar years on record.

ïExtended drought and a reduced water 

supply have placed a great strain on the 

communities in the Lower Rio Grande. 

However, the potential for conflict over 

water supplies is no longer defined by 

drought events.

Reality Number 2:

Existing Water Supplies are Inadequate

Water supply and management 

issues are becoming increasingly 

important as the demand on existing 

supplies continues to grow. 

Increasing populations in many 

areas, combined with increasing 

demand for water for recreation, 

scenic value, and fish and wildlife 

habitat, have resulted in conflicts 

throughout the country, especially 

in the arid West. 

Congressional Research Service 

report for Congress, ìWater 

Resource Issues in the 107th 

Congress,î by Betsy Cody and H. 

Steven Hughes, January 16, 2001

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Reality Number 2:

Existing Water Supplies are Inadequate

As a part of Water 2025, the Department of the Interior will use all available tools 

that have a demonstrated capacity to address potential water supply crises. 

9

Improved water management requires knowledge of basin-specific problems. The 

Bureau of Reclamation prepared an analysis of potential water supply crises and 

conflicts by the year 2025. This analysis is based on a combination of technical and 

other factors, including population trends and potential endangered species needs for 

water. The Department of the Interior intends to seek extensive input from states, 

tribes, and the public on this analysis and expects that it will be revised and improved 

through this effort. 
Reality Number 3:

Over-Allocated Water Supplies Can Cause 

Crisis and Conflict 

Recent crises in the Klamath River and 

Middle Rio Grande basins -- where 

farmers, cities, Native Americans, fish 

and wildlife all were impacted by the 

water shortages -- vividly demonstrate 

the consequences of failing to address 

competing demands of people and 

the environment for a finite water 

supply. The Nation cannot afford 

repeated water crises. The social, 

economic, and environmental 

consequences of water supply crises 

are too severe.

A dry Middle Rio Grande riverbed

A sign from Klamath Basin crises

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Reality Number 4:

Aging Water Facilities Limit Management 

Options

Most of the federal infrastructure that manages the finite usable water supply in 

the West is approaching 50-60 years of age, and some facilities are almost a 

century old. 

Aging irrigation water control structure

harnessed the power of falling water to 

produce energy, and allowed cities to 

flourish.

Many water supply facilities today in the 

West continue to use 19th century 

technology to attempt to meet 21st century 

problems.

In some instances, canals can lose up to 50 

percent of their irrigation water through 

seepage.

Beginning in the early 1900s, the 

federal government built many of 

the water storage and delivery 

facilities in the arid West to develop 

water supplies for a growing and 

expanding United States. 

These systems - the visions of past 

water use pioneers - created vast 

areas of irrigated agriculture, 

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Reality Number 5:

Crisis Management is Not Effective

Water 2025 is intended to focus 

sustained attention on measures that 

can be put in place before extended 

drought or other pressures push 

communities toward divisiveness and 

conflict.

Simply put, the West has developed to 

the point that the social, economic and 

environmental consequences of water 

supply crises are no longer a local or 

regional issue. These crises now affect 

economies and resources of national 

importance.

Conflict can be minimized or avoided 

when potential water supply crises are 

addressed in advance by local and 

regional communities. 

Mere plans or endless processes are 

not a substitute for decision making, 

and can have the unintended and 

adverse effect of delaying action until a 

potential crisis becomes a reality. 

In some areas of the West, 

communities are already implementing 

water banks, voluntary transfers 

between existing users, and water 

conservation measures to address 

potential water supply crises in 

advance.

Crisis management is not an effective 

solution for addressing long-term, 

systemic water supply problems.

Congress, states, tribes, and interested 

citizens have over the years sought to 

define and refine water policy in the 

West. Many studies and other 

processes have assessed these issues 

at a conceptual level. Collectively, 

these studies would fill entire rooms. 

However, in reality, the options for 

addressing water supply crises are 

fairly well known and understood. In 

the long run, shortages in water 

quantity can be met only by increasing 

efficiency of existing uses, transfers of 

water between uses, reducing or 

eliminating existing water uses, the 

development of alternative sources of 

water such as desalination, or by 

storing additional water in wet years for 

use in dry years. 

Public and policy-level attention to 

water supply issues in drought 

conditions tends to disappear as soon 

as rain (or snow) relieves the drought. 

But drought is only a magnifier of the 

larger problems associated with rapid 

population growth and environmental 

demands for water in areas where 

water supplies are already overallocated. 

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Meeting the Challenge

1

2

3

4

1. Conservation, Efficiency, and Markets 

2. Collaboration 

3. Improved Technology 

4. Remove Institutional Barriers and Increase Interagency Coordination

Four Key Tools to Prevent Water Crises

Water conflicts can have serious social, economic, and environmental impacts. Through 

Water 2025, the Department of the Interior identifies four key tools to help prevent 

future conflict and crises over water in the West. 

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1

Conservation, Efficiency, and Markets:

Improve Water Management and Use Market-Based 

Approaches To Head off Conflicts

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In many cases, 

implementation of new 

water conservation and 

efficiency improvements 

through cooperative 

partnerships will result in an 

increased ability to meet otherwise 

conflicting demands for water.

Most irrigation delivery systems were 

built in the early 1900s and remain 

virtually unchanged today. These 

irrigation delivery systems can be 

modernized and retrofitted with new 

water management technologies. 

Water districts can install costeffective water management 

technologies, using low-cost solarpowered components that allow 

remote water measurement and 

operation of deliveries through 

irrigation delivery systems. The initial 

investment in these systems, though 

significantly less than in the past, can 

still be burdensome to many water 

delivery organizations.

!The Department of the Interior will 

work with partners to retrofit and 

modernize existing facilities to

accomplish improved water 

management through the use of new 

technologies. 

For example, with Reclamationís 

assistance, irrigation districts have 

installed automated control and remote 

water measurement structures. 

"In Idahoís Payette Valley, nine 

irrigation districts and canal companies 

within the Payette River Water District 

have automated 29 control structures, 

installed more than 30 remote water 

monitoring and measurement devices, 

and modified a large dam on the river. 

These improvements provided just 

enough additional operational water 

storage to vastly improve the efficiency 

of river operations. 

Modernized Canal Structure
"More than 30 test sections have been 

constructed in several irrigation districts 

throughout the Pacific Northwest. Canals 

in central Oregon have reduced seepage 

losses by up to 50 percent. 

!Most irrigation water delivery canals in th

West are currently unlined. Water saving

and corresponding increases in available 

water supplies from installation of canal 

lining technologies could be significant as 

whole.

"Reclamation is providing funding and 

technical assistance to state and local 

agencies and water districts in the Klamat

basin area to conserve existing water 

through the lining of canals.

Conservation, Efficiency, and Markets:

Improve Water Management and Use Market-Based 

Approaches To Head off Conflicts

15

"SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data 

Acquisition) systems allow river 

managers to remotely monitor and 

operate key river and canal facilities on a 

real-time basis. Individual stations can 

be set to monitor river levels or flow rates 

continuously. In addition, Reclamation 

and water district managers can respond 

to daily water management needs and 

emergencies in a timely fashion by 

controlling pump and canal facilities 

remotely. The cost of this high-tech 

equipment was once thought to be out of 

reach for most irrigation delivery entities, 

but today has become more affordable. 

However, less than 20 percent of 

irrigation water delivery systems currently 

use this technology. 

!Reclamationís research has shown that 

for every $1 spent on canal 

modernization (such as rehabilitating 

canal gates), an expected return of $3 to 

$5 in conserved water can be achieved. 

"For every $1 spent on maintaining an 

existing canal lining, a return of up to $10 

in conserved water can be achieved. 

"Canal-lining technologies can minimize 

seepage losses at a reasonable cost.

Installing canal lining technologies
! Accounting for irrigation water 

deliveries plays a vital role in an effective 

water management system. 

Improvements in design and construction 

of new measuring devices allow water to 

be accurately measured. These devices 

could become the foundation for 

improved water management in the 

West.

"The Ochoco Irrigation District in central 

Oregon lost approximately 40 cubic feet 

per second (cfs), or 25.8 million gallons 

per day, at the end of their irrigation 

system. The District, in partnership with 

Reclamation, dramatically cut its daily 

losses by 75% after installing advanced 

water measurement equipment. In the 

last two irrigation seasons, these 

improvements have allowed the district to

Conservation, Efficiency, and Markets:

Improve Water Management and Use Market-Based 

Approaches To Head off Conflicts

16

provide irrigation water for a longer period 

of time, even though both the 2001 and 

2002 water seasons have been drought 

years in central Oregon. 

!Water banks and markets are essential 

to avoiding crises in critical areas of the 

West. The use of water banks and 

markets is sometimes a source of concern 

to agricultural areas and the communities 

that support them. However, the 

Department of the Interior strongly 

supports the use of these mechanisms to 

allow water to be shifted between 

competing water uses because they are 

based on a recognition of the validity of 

existing rights. Water banks also avoid or 

reduce the conflict, crisis, and heartache 

that results when water uses are changed 

through regulatory or other means. More 

importantly, water banks can provide a 

mechanism for preserving irrigated 

agriculture and meeting other water 

supply needs.

"A critical component of the ìCalFedî 

process in the Central Valley of California 

is the innovative Environmental Water 

Account. This account provides a 

mechanism for state and federal 

governments to purchase water from 

willing sellers in order to meet important 

ecological restoration goals in the San 

Francisco Bay Delta region. 

Solar-powered headgate
Conservation, Efficiency, and Markets:

Improve Water Management and Use Market-Based 

Approaches To Head off Conflicts

17

"A form of ìwater bankî has been in 

operation in Northern Colorado for 

over 50 years. Water delivered from 

the federal Colorado-Big Thompson 

Project (C-BT) can be rented on an 

annual basis between agricultural 

water users and municipalities within 

the Project. Once the buyer and seller 

have reached agreement on the price, 

water is transferred when the seller 

simply sends a postcard to the water 

district that manages the water from 

the C-BT Project. Permanent transfers 

of water within the District can occur 

between willing buyers and sellers in a 

process that takes months, not years, 

to complete with transaction costs of a 

few thousand dollars. Over the years, 

municipalities have acquired additional 

Project water to meet the needs of 

their growing populations during 

droughts. However, a substantial 

amount of the municipally-held water 

supplies are rented back to farmers in 

normal years. This combination of 

permanent transfers and annual 

rentals has allowed the region to meet 

the needs of a growing population and

protect a very important agricultural 

economy. 

"A dynamic similar to the one in 

Northern Colorado is currently 

developing in California, where farmers 

have the option to sell water on a short 

term basis to urban areas within 

California that have short term needs. 

This flexibility allows farmers an 

additional option in years when the 

market for agricultural products will not 

produce an acceptable rate of return, 

and preserves their ability to stay in 

production in the long term.

"Three Idaho water banks enable wate

users to transfer their surplus storage 

entitlements to other uses. These wate

banks helped provide in-stream flows 

for ESA-listed species of salmon. While 

controversial, it prevented conflict 

between traditional water users and the 

federal government in the 

implementation of the ESA. 

"In 2000, the State of Colorado 

authorized a five-year water banking 

program for the Arkansas River Basin t

help farmers receive revenues for 

temporarily leasing their water to others

with the water rights remaining in 

agriculture. 
Conservation, Efficiency, and Markets:

Improve Water Management and Use Market-Based 

Approaches To Head off Conflicts

Reclamation and the USDA 

Natural Resource Conservation 

Service will continue to construct 

and manage SnoTel sites across 

the West that measure and 

record real-time snow pack data 

used to develop runoff forecasts 

for entire watersheds. Such 

partnerships would be expanded 

to include watersheds that are 

suffering shortages of both water 

and adequate data used to 

predict and forecast water 

supply.

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! Interagency efforts to coordinate both 

existing and new water conservation 

programs would improve the return on 

federal dollars already being spent ìon the 

ground,î allowing for marked improvements 

in water management.

"The USGS will enhance groundwater 

monitoring and stream flow-measurement 

systems in critical areas of the West. This 

will improve drought evaluations, 

predictions, and long-term resource 

planning. States, tribes, and localities would 

maintain their important role in setting 

priorities for these enhancements.

"Improvements in the coordination of 

collection and management of snow pack 

and runoff data in critical watersheds will 

allow water managers to predict and plan for 

water shortages earlier than current 

systems. 

"Reclamation and USGS are partnering on 

the Watershed River System Management 

Program to create models that will help farm 

agencies, drought planners, and others 

better understand the unique aspects of the 

basin when they make critical decisions. 
Collaboration:

Cooperative Approaches To Resolving Conflict

2

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Congress has decided that, except in 

limited circumstances, states should 

have the authority to allocate water 

within their boundaries. Congress has 

also required that federal needs for 

water must respect prior rights to water 

created under state law, and that both 

federal and nonfederal needs for water

must be integrated into a single priority 

system in states that follow the doctrine o

ìprior appropriation.î

The integration of claims to water typically 

occurs in court proceedings. These 

proceedings or ìadjudicationsî can be 

complex and take decades to complete. 

The problem is that until these

Significant 

water 

supply 

crises must 

be addressed 

in advance of the crisis. 

Collaborative processes that 

are based on recognition of 

the rights and interests of 

the stakeholders allow the 

problem solving that 

maximizes the opportunity 

for innovation and creativity.

! One of the most important 

aspects of intelligent water 

management in the West is 

to have a system that 

allocates available water 

supplies in a rational manner 

when there is not enough to 

meet all demands for water. 
Collaboration:

Cooperative Approaches To Resolving Conflict

proceedings are completed, water 

managers do not know how to allocate 

water in times of scarcity. The 

resulting uncertainty over ìwho owns 

whatî causes chaos and conflict. The 

Department of the Interior is committed 

to working with states, tribes, and 

interested stakeholders to find ways to 

accelerate these proceedings in order 

to protect existing federal and nonfederal rights. 

! A common element of many of the 

potential crises identified in Water 

2025 is the need to provide for water 

supply for people, cities, and farms in 

a manner that also attains the goals of 

the federal Endangered Species Act. 

Success in meeting this challenge 

almost always requires a collaborative 

effort between stakeholders, as is 

demonstrated by the success of the 

Upper Colorado River ñ San Juan 

Endangered Fish Recovery Programs. 

These Recovery Programs provide for 

the recovery of endangered species 

and the continued use and 

development of water for people, for 

cities, and for farms. A similar effort is 

underway in the Central Valley of 

California, where the ìCalFedî process

has brought diverse stakeholders 

together in an effort to protect and 

restore important ecological resources 

and protect the people and economy of 

California.

These large scale efforts to meet the 

needs of people and the environment 

are based on several realities. First, the 

twin goals of recovery of endangered 

species and meeting the water needs of 

people who live in these areas cannot 

be attained when the issues and 

resources are locked into a cycle of 

short term litigation and decisionmaking. Long term Biological Opinions 

issued under the Endangered Species 

Act are essential to the long term 

planning and predictability that both 

people and endangered species need. 

Second, public support for the state, 

private, and federal commitments that is 

required to meet these twin goals is 

essential. Stakeholders typically will not 

commit public or private resources to 

water supply development and 

endangered species recovery efforts 

without an assurance that the benefits 

of their investment of resources will not 

be swept away by short term decision 

making.

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Collaboration:

Cooperative Approaches To Resolving Conflict

21

! Collaboration between stakeholders can also result in a resolution of 

longstanding conflicts. Interior will partner with state and local governments, tribes, 

water users and conservation groups to improve river systems.

"For more than 2 decades, the East Bay Municipal Utility District and several 

localities struggled over the management of the Sacramento River, thus disrupting 

the efficient use of water. Through facilitation sponsored by the Bureau of 

Reclamation, a sustainable and locally developed agreement was reached. 

The 4-Cís in action: Conservation through Cooperation, 

Communication, and Consultation
Improved Technology:

New Sources of Water 

3

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Wastewater, salty 

and other impaired 

water can be purified 

to increase their 

utility. Water 2025ís 

goal is to significantly aid 

technological advances and identify 

new supplies. Interior can facilitate 

research to reduce the high costs that 

slow adoption of new water 

purification technologies.

!A part of the effort to identify new 

potential sources of water would be to 

task the U.S. Geological Survey 

(USGS) with the comprehensive 

study of untapped but impaired 

supplies, with a focus on those places 

with a high probability of water 

demands exceeding supplies by 

2025.

Various private entities, academic 

institutions, and state and federal 

agencies are engaged in research 

that could be better coordinated and 

focused. Recent reports to Congress 

on potential projects, along with a 

water desalination research roadmap 

now under review by the National 

Research Council, should guide 

research.

Reducing desalination costs, for 

instance, could enable the cost-effective 

treatment of brackish groundwater in 

traditionally water-short areas. In some 

rural communities and Indian 

reservations, this salty groundwater is 

unusable for human consumption, 

limiting growth and prosperity. Although 

one alternative is to pipe fresh water 

from rivers and reservoirs miles away to 

these water short areas, desalination 

could offer less expensive and droughtproof alternative while providing reliable 

and high quality water supplies to these 

communities.

Remote water data collection 

technology
Improved Technology:

New Sources of Water

" Interior will seek to facilitate the implementation of desalination and advanced water 

treatment through improved interagency coordination of research and focused 

investments to areas most needing planning support.

!Past collaboration and dissemination of information has led to great technological 

advances. The Bureau of Reclamation, in cooperation with other federal agencies, 

can facilitate technology development and transfer, evaluate product capabilities, and 

assess research gaps and new technologies. 

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Reverse osmosis water treatment plant
In some areas of the 

West, federal facilities 

have excess capacity 

during certain times of 

the year that could be 

used to satisfy unmet demands 

elsewhere. This excess capacity is, 

however, sometimes not available due 

to policy or legal constraints. In some 

cases, this additional capacity can be 

made available with appropriate 

changes in Interior policy. In other 

cases, legislative action could be 

considered. The use of this excess

Institutional Barriers and Interagency Cooperation

Remove Institutional Barriers to Improve Water Management

4

Optimize the use of existing water supply 

infrastructure

24

Salmon migrating through fish ladder

capacity could minimize or avoid the need to build new infrastructure to address 

additional water needs.

!In Colorado, an effort has been made to provide excess storage space in 

Reclamationís facilities to non-project irrigation districts and other water users for 

storage of their water during the continued drought. 

!In California, Reclamation is working with the state to facilitate operations and 

take advantage of under-utilized pumping capacities at the southern end of the 

Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. By sharing pumping capabilities, additional 

opportunities will be provided to both the state and federal projects to move more 

water where it is needed while reducing impacts to fish and protecting local 

irrigators. 
Institutional Barriers and Interagency Cooperation

Coordinate Among Federal Agencies

Interior interacts with many different 

stakeholders, including farmers, 

ranchers, cities, tribes, conservation 

groups and others. As part of the 

effort to establish the National Drought 

Monitoring Network, Interior believes 

that one-stop shopping for Western 

water users on a single government 

website will aid in problem solving, 

particularly in critical areas. Such a 

site can provide information on snow 

pack, runoff, river operations, 

forecasting, and drought prediction. 

This effort will be consistent with the 

Presidentís Management Agenda 

initiative furthering e-government. 

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Drought Action Teams will enable each department to respond quickly to emerging water 

supply shortages, and to coordinate the implementation of existing programs to maximize the 

benefits of available resources. Upon the concurrence of both secretaries that an extreme 

water shortage event is likely to exist in a particular area, a Drought Action Team will be 

created for that area. Each team will include department-level policy staff in addition to 

appropriate staff from bureaus or agencies within each department. It is anticipated that these 

teams will exist only for the limited time required to ensure that DOI and USDA resources are 

being applied in a coordinated and streamlined manner. 

" Interior will cooperate with other 

federal agencies to more effectively 

focus federal dollars on critical water 

short areas, coordinating to enhance 

water management preparedness. 

!Through active support of the National 

Drought Monitoring Network, Interior will 

help accelerate the development of an 

important tool to drought preparedness.

!The Departments of the Interior and 

Agriculture will create Drought Action 

Teams to focus scarce resources 

quickly where and when they are 

needed. 

!The USGS will team with other 

agencies to create a monthly Water 

Resources Assessment that will be 

available online so that decision makers 

can better understand the water supply 

component of drought conditions. 
Water 2025 Will:

" Facilitate a cooperative, forward-looking focus 

on water short areas of the West; 

" Help to stretch or increase water supplies to 

satisfy the demands of growing populations, 

protect environmental needs, and strengthen 

regional, tribal and local economies; 

" Provide added environmental benefits to many 

watersheds, rivers, and streams;

" Minimize water crises in critical watersheds by 

improving the environment and addressing the 

effects of future droughts on important local and 

tribal economies; and

" Provide a balanced, practical approach to wate

management for the next century.

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Americaís strength has always depended on the great wealth of he

natural resources and the ingenuity of her people. Water 2025 will en

our nation to continue to prosper and grow well into the 21st century 

leave the legacy of a healthy environment, community strength, an

economic self-reliance for generations to come. 

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