A popular topic at recent water law conferences, and rightly so, has been the movement towards a completely new system of administering water rights. Increased concerns for the environment, increased populations in the arid West, relentless droughts, and depletion of vast aquifers are but a few of the many pressures for change. The form of this new system has not yet taken shape but whatever it is, it will almost certainly alter or diminish western water rights under the Prior Appropriation Doctrine. Therefore, now is the time to become politically active both in protecting present water rights and in shaping the new system for future generations.
Two examples of the movement towards change are the "National Water Policy" recommendations of the Longs Peak Working Group to the Clinton Administration (see article in the March 10, 1993 issue of UTAH WATER NEWS) and a court decision concerning Mono Lake. The Longs Peak Working Group recommends that the federal government use all authorities under existing law, expanding the law as necessary, to protect and restore aquatic ecosystem. This language appears to be a thinly disguised attempt to impose riparian water law nationwide in the name of protecting the "ecological integrity" of natural streams, lakes, and wetlands. No mention is made of compensating the present owners of the water rights needed to accomplish that goal.
California has gone one step further by diminishing, without any compensation, the long established water rights of users of Mono Lake water for ecological purposes. The California Supreme Court determined that water rights perfected under the state's appropriation system are not vested property rights and that such water rights are subject to later re-allocation when necessary to protect public interests under the Public Trust Doctrine. Although this case was decided ten years ago, it is being cited more and more frequently as means of re-allocating water to meet present environmental and social concerns.
Western water law has long recognized that perfected water rights under the Prior Appropriation Doctrine are vested and constitutionally protected property rights. Change is inevitable but it should be done with a proper balancing of real interests. Unless we as western water users are active and vigilant in shaping the new system of water administration, we may find ourselves with dry water works thanks to a new politically created drought.

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