The Texas Water Journal has published the final article in the Volume 10, Number 1, 2019 issue titled “Interjecting Economics into the Surface Water Dialogue” by Maria Vaca, Stefni Richards, Alexa Davis, Kylie Jackson, Nanag Timur, Fahad Manzoor, Said Azam, Robert Feltman and James Griffin.
This paper applies the conceptual lens of economic efficiency as a criterion by which to evaluate surface water in Texas. Master of Public Service and Administration students and their faculty advisor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University identified two major problems. First, Texas has a water allocation problem limiting the ability to substitute groundwater for surface water to move water between river basins and to facilitate transfers within a river basin. Second, surface water is both underpriced and unresponsive to drought conditions preventing it from being used at its highest and best use. The authors propose a variety of partial solutions, which include facilitating greater reliance on water markets as well as a water tax that would vary across regions and over time to encourage conservation.
The journal, an open-accessed, peer-reviewed journal published by the nonprofit The Texas Water Journal and the Texas Water Resources Institute, publishes papers as they are complete. It is devoted to the timely consideration of Texas water resources management, research and policy issues from a multidisciplinary perspective that integrates science, engineering, law, planning and other disciplines. It also provides updates on key state legislation and policy changes by Texas administrative agencies.
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