Formally-adopted positions of the Western States Water Council
Position #461 - March 25, 2021 WHEREAS, Western States experience great variability in precipitation, with serious impacts and consequences for water supply planning and management, drought and flood preparedness and response, water rights and water market...
Position #460 - March 25, 2021 WHEREAS, Western States experience great variability in precipitation, with serious impacts and consequences for the operation of water projects, particularly aging water infrastructure, as well as water supply and emergency planning and...
Position #459 - March 25, 2021 WHEREAS, National Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) standards for extreme rainfall have long been used for the design and regulation of infrastructure including dams, roads and bridges, as well as thermal power facilities; and are used...
Position #458 – October 15, 2020 WHEREAS, the western states use general stream adjudications to determine and document relative water rights within basins, including rights to waters claimed by the United States under either state or federal law; and WHEREAS, general...
Position #457 - October 15, 2020 WHEREAS, the Dividing the Waters Program of the National Judicial College has served western judges overseeing complex water litigation for more than 20 years, providing information and training resources on water law and water conflicts...
Position #456 – October 15, 2020 WHEREAS, ground water is a critically important natural resource, especially in the mostly arid West; and WHEREAS, ground water management – the protection of its quality and its orderly, rational allocation and withdrawal for beneficial...
Position #455 – October 15, 2020 WHEREAS, water is the lifeblood of the West and this is most apparent in the agricultural sector, which accounts for the predominant share of consumptive water use westwide; and WHEREAS, agriculture sustains many rural economies and...
Position #454 – October 15, 2020 WHEREAS, the Western States Water Council, an instrumentality of eighteen westernstates advising Western Governors on water policy, has consistently supported negotiatedsettlement of disputed Indian water rights claims; and WHEREAS, the...
Position #453 – July 22, 2020 WHEREAS, Presidential Executive Order 13132, issued on August 4, 1999, requires federal agencies to “have an accountable process to ensure meaningful and timely input by State and local officials in the development of regulatory policies...
Position #452 – July 22, 2020 WHEREAS, in the West, water is a vital and scarce resource the availability of which has and continues to circumscribe growth, development, our economic well being and environmental quality of life; and WHEREAS, the wise use, conservation,...