The Olglalla aquifer. Perhaps those discussing this distinguished aquifer might
enlighten unenlightened Canadians, South Africans, New Zealanders, and Aussies..etc.
as to where this aquifer is, and its significance. I also don't know what Ostromized
co-operative management is as contrasted with unmodified co-operative management.
I appreciate that you don't want to use free markets to allocate water
resources but
if you use price won't that still have the effect of rationing partly on the basis of
income
rather than need. Why is any other method "draconian"? For example, when water
pressure
is low in the summer in Brandon, people in odd numbered houses are required to water
on one day and even numbered other days...or variations on that sort of schema. Of
course some people cheat but enough obey that it works. No draconian water police are
needed.
I grant that this example may have little relevance to managing water from an
aquifer but
it just shows there are non-draconian ways of dealing with water scarcity that do not
involve a price mechanism per se.
If this aquifer is centred in aboriginal territory, what are native rights, with
regards to usage of water on their territory and off their territory? Do they have
exclusive jurisdiction on their territory and others exclusive jurisdiction outside
of aboriginal territories? It seems that usage of water by those outside native
territory will impact water supply within those terriitories and vice versa. I
thought that was what Brad's original post might have been about. We are free riders
on a Sioux aquifer.... but I guess not... By the way there are at 4 reasonably sized
lakes
within a 15 mile circumference of where I live, not to count innumerable small ponds
(sloughs). If wells ever did dry up it would just be a question of treating the water
that
is widely available. Community wells used to pump water for cattle etc that are
shallow and
often have unpotable water are replenished by precipation. Unless there were a series
of very
dry years this is a renewable resource..These are not arid plains. but parkland. Just
don't
ask for a water pipeline from here to Arizona :)
Cheers, Ken Hanly
Peter Dorman wrote:
> I too am all for Ostromized cooperative management of common property
> resources, but the Oglalla acquifer spans too large an area to be
> managed that way. Unsustainable water mining is a problem in large
> parts of the plains and arid west and demands far-reaching policies
> which will affect settlement patterns and not merely agricultural
> techniques. I agree with Brad that choices will have to be made at
> higher levels, and one argument for using prices to implement them is
> that any other system would be draconian. (Note: this does not mean
> that markets in water as a commodity are the answer, because the common
> resource problem, the discounting problem, environmental
> interactions/nonconvexities all point to market failure at the level of
> the whole system. I am advocating using prices as a transmission
> mechanism for decisions made by other means.)
>
> My position is one of unblemished virtue in this discussion, of course,
> because I live in the pacific northwest, currently soaked with water.
>
> Peter Dorman
>
> Michael Perelman wrote:
> >
> > Hardin's story is a myth. In truth, the communities that he describes had
> > customs and institutions that kept the amount of livestock in check. But after
> > the land became privatized all hell broke loose.
> >
> > Brad might be correct about his understanding of the wells, but I want to
> > correct his historical allusion (illusion) about the tragedy of the commons.
> > --
> >
> > Michael Perelman
> > Economics Department
> > California State University
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Chico, CA 95929
> > 530-898-5321
> > fax 530-898-5901
