3 ms·
Is there some blocker to cities purchasing water rights? Or is the type of thing where cities will, but only once they have to?
by scarmig 4y ago
Is there some blocker to cities purchasing water rights? Or is the type of thing where cities will, but only once they have to?
- s1artibartfast 4y agoThe only blocker is cost and the political will to do so. The first and second choices are: 1) to expand and take water until they are sued. 2) mandate restrictions on city users
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoCities can and do buy water rights, but it's very slow. My parents were on a private water system, fed by a spring. There was an owner's association, and the homeowners served by the water system owned shares in the system. The city was eventually able to buy enough shares to control the system, but it took three or four decades of trying. So say you own a farm, and you own the water rights that enable it to operate. And your family has owned those rights ever since 1852, when they settled on that land. Each generation has passed it on to the next. If you sell the water, you're selling the farm as a working farm. You're selling your childrens' future. That's not a decision that you make quickly, no matter how much money the city waves at you.