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Let’s try new strategies to conserve water

It was with great incredulousness that I learned that the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe was in a secondary use position regarding irrigation water in their watershed; they certainly predated everyone by a long shot!

Maybe it was because they were a society that agriculture was just one component of their survival needs, and while forced on reservations, it did not occur to them its future importance. It still seems that if water is curtailed during droughts to the lower ranked time of uses, it should not be the end all and be all. Everyone should have a stake in the drought by rationing a percentage comparable to overall availability.

All federally subsidized water should be obligated to making inroads on water loss with tax credits and other incentives to help others in the system and minimum base flows in the natural streams. Let’s get like beavers and direct some water into viable groundwater aquifers as storage “bank accounts.” Out of reach of our desert sun.

James Lynch

Ignacio