Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management

Issue

8

Volume

148

Publisher

American Society of Civil Engineers

Publication Date

5-19-2022

First Page

1

Last Page

5

Abstract

The term buy-and-dry plays to the fears of farm and ranch communities. In Owens Valley, CA in the early 1900s and Palo Verde Irrigation District, CA today, wealthy urban water providers buy up water rights, dry out farms and ranches, export purchased water out of basin to growing cities, or keep water in storage to counter reservoir draw down (James, 2021). As more farmers and ranchers sell their water rights, local businesses—irrigation, farm equipment, seed, and other agricultural firms—contract. Those contractions encourage more farmers and ranchers to sell 15 their water rights and farms. And a negative feedback loop gains momentum and propels a tragedy where the commons—a functioning local agricultural community—disappears. Deep pocketed public urban water providers can initiate the perverse cycle of buy and dry and so can private Wall Street investment bankers (Howe, 2021).

Comments

This is the accepted version of an article published in The Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. The published version of the article can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001584

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