Westlands Irrigation District in California has an electronic trading board where farmers by and sell water. In Utah and Nevada, residential building booms have given rise to active markets as well. In those states, developers are buying water to make sure that new homes have an adequate supply. Oregon has even developed an energetic market for water intended for environmental needs. In that state, an environmental organization is paying farmers to use less water for irrigation and leave more water in the rivers to help protect endangered salmon.
Markets are precisely the type of discipline that water management in the West needs.
Babbitt must realize that the West will never see real prices if the federal government continues to muck up true water markets with an endless flow of cash.