Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The meeting was held in Lincoln Nebraska, on October 4- 5, 2007 at the Embassy Suites Hotel. News from CSREES and the Western AES Directors was presented by Mike ONeill and LeRoy Daugherty. Michael Hayes, Director of the National Drought Mitigation Center presented "Drought Management Issues and the Activities of the National Drought Mitigation Center." Jasper Fanning, the General Manager of the Upper Republican Natural Resources District presented "Nebraska's Experience with Natural Resource Districts and Groundwater Management." Glenn Schiable encouraged comments on the Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey. Gopal introduced the new Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research. State/agency reports were presented orally by all participants. These reports are later presented in this progress report. Chris Goehmans was elected incoming Secretary. Next years office holders will be Bob Hearne, Chair; Garth Taylor, Vice Chari, and Chris Goehmans was elected incoming Secretary. The writing team for the next proposal will be, Bob Hearne, Brian Hurd, Ray Supalla, Grant Cardon, and Garth Taylor. Denver was proposed as the meeting venue for October 2008.

Water throughout the Western U.S. is central to both regional economies and environments. Water use is critical to agricultural production, growing cities and industries, the maintenance of vital ecosystems and habitats, and the quality of life in the Western United States. This collaborative research project focuses on the strategic mobilization of water across uses and sectors, in particular, those relating to irrigated agriculture  the largest water user in the West. Recent years have witnessed major changes in the technology, economics, and institutions that have a significant bearing on water, its use and its conservation. Also the continuing change in western economies, with the increasing importance of recreation, leisure, and the environment and the relative decreasing importance of irrigated agriculture implies further research challenges in order to ensure efficient water use. The overall research objectives are summarized as follows: 1. Develop and evaluate alternative technologies to monitor environmental effects of water allocation and management; 2. Quantify comparative economic values of water in alternative uses; and 3. Assess the effectiveness of alternative management institutions, laws, and policies for water allocation. A number of continuing themes demonstrate ongoing multistate and multidisciplinary collaboration and linkages. These themes include: i) modeling water use and extraction under incomplete information which will be addressed under Objective1 ; ii) expanding crop water-use and evapotranspiration models to the watershed and basin levels, which will be addressed under Objective 2; and iii) assessing institutional and policy linkages through a theme of political externalities, which is addressed under Objective 3. Objective 1: Develop and evaluate alternative technologies to monitor environmental effects of water allocation and management Activities and Accomplishments A salinity project was initiated by Texas researchers in 2007 in the Lower Rio Grande Valley to study the effects of irrigating with saline water of about 700-800 ppm salts. Six furrow irrigated fields containing corn, cotton, grain sorghum, and hay-grazer were sampled both pre-plant and post-harvest to a depth of 4 feet at both the top and the bottom of the field. Several trends were noted this year including (a) salinity levels increased sharply in the 3- and 4-ft depths, (b) salinity increased at the bottom of the field compared with the top and (c) negative log normal function strongly indicates a decreasing trend in salinity as the percent sand in the soil profile increases. The irrigation production functions developed can assist irrigators in strategic planning of irrigation, alternatives, rates and timings to increase efficiency of water use. High salinity levels can impact crop yields, some more so than others. Being aware of irrigation water quality and its impacts on soil salinity levels enhances irrigators abilities to utilize irrigation practices that minimize salinity accumulations. The IRRG-AID spreadsheets are being evaluated for use by the US Bureau of Reclamation for use in CO and AZ. They are also applicable for use in NM and OK. Saak and Peterson developed a theoretical model to assess the role of imperfect information in water extracted from a common pool aquifer. In particular, agents in the model realize that their withdrawal rates have some impact on their neighbors future water availability, but are unsure about the magnitude of this impact. In hydrologic terms, the rate of aquifer transmissivity is unknown to individual users. In a simple 2-user, 2-period game, the lack of information can be shown to either increase or decrease water use and welfare levels in the Nash equilibrium. The direction of impact depends on a rather subtle curvature property of the users net benefit functions, which can be interpreted as a feature of risk preferences. Brozovi applied dynamic optimization methods to spatial models of water resource management. This project involves multidisciplinary collaboration between economists, engineers, and sociologists, and includes case studies in Illinois and Nebraska, as well as collaboration with an environmental NGO and a CGIAR center. Further work in this research program includes collaboratory efforts with Illinois, Texas, and California. Though there is ample evidence of saline soil and water conditions in Utah, there is not sufficient understanding of the distribution, extent and severity of salt-affected soil and water resources in the major watersheds of the state. Without such inventories, and spatial mapping of such conditions, one cannot track the effects of drought on soil and water quality, nor predict the effect of long-term drought on salt-impacted water use, plant growth, water balance and economics in these watersheds. Cardons research on incorporating crop-water-salinity response models into economic decision models is on-going. Specific projects include continued work in the Arkansas River basin of southeast Colorado on crop salinity tolerance and performance, salinity tolerance of fruit and berry crops in Utah, and mapping the extent and severity of soil and water salinity in the irrigated areas of the Bear River Basin in northern Utah. Continuing Activities Brozovi is also investigating the economic dynamics of ecosystems with unknown thresholds. This research is a theoretical analysis of the optimal management of pollutant inputs into a lake ecosystem when there is an unknown threshold separating physical regimes with distinct behaviors. This project involves interstate collaboration between economists in Illinois and New York. Objective 2: Quantify comparative economic values of water in alternative uses Activities and Accomplishments Supalla and Martin investigated reservoir management in Nebraska. The amount of water stored in Lake McConaughy reached a historical low in the fall of 2004. In 2005 and 2006 the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District (CNPPID) irrigators received less than a full supply of Lake McConaughy water for the first time in over 50 years of operation. Electric power interests, recreation interests and the regional economy have also been adversely affected. The central policy question is what if anything should the State of Nebraska do to minimize the adverse impacts from this situation and/or prevent it from developing again in the future? Phase I of this project, conducted in 2005 and 2006, addressed some of the most urgent concerns associated with this question. It focused on how water shortages have impacted the recreation industry or the regional economy and on whether there were any short-term water management opportunities for mitigating such impacts which were economically justifiable. The major finding from Phase I was that that the welfare affects of different policy options depended substantially on how quickly the reservoir was likely to refill in each case. Phase II of the study is scheduled for completion in late 2007. Preliminary results suggest that there is a an 80 percent probability that the recreation benefits from reduced reservoir releases will exceed the costs in terms of reduced hydropower and irrigation, given expected refill probabilities. Phase II also considered the economics of augmenting reservoir inflows by reducing upstream irrigation, as an alternative to reduced releases. This option was found to be much more costly, especially if irrigation was reduced by retiring acres instead of by limiting the amount of water pumped. Economists from Texas are bringing economics, finance, accounting, and computer modeling to water planning in the Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley. Efforts assist and educate engineers and municipal water managers about comparative life-cycle costs of adding water in the most economical manner between reverse-osmosis desalination and conventional surface-water treatment for their particular location/situation. Irrigation district managers are provided (a) customized computer spreadsheet software which allows the analysis of rate changes (and other variables) upon projected income statements, as well as (b) analyses indicating which water-delivery infrastructure rehabilitative projects provide the most bang-for-the-buck over the long term with comparative life-cycle costs. Eddy covariance towers and Bowen ration equipment have been used to measure the water use on a dryland cropping system, on irrigated corn and soybeans, and on native pasture in western Nebraska. Data collection continues to provide historical data for varying precipitation patterns. Additional equipment is being installed to measure water use of a wider array of crops and invasive trees. Research is also underway to evaluate the use of satellite image analysis to estimate evapotranspiration at the watershed scale. Initial research shows that the SEBAL and METRIC models offer promise but may require local calibration in semi-humid and semi-arid climates that experience significant precipitation between passes of the satellite. Water optimizer was used in Nebraska to analyze alternative water management strategies when the available water supply is limited. It is a field-level, single-season program which computes how many acres to irrigate, which crops to produce and how much water to apply to each crop in a normal weather year. Eight crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, grain sorghum, alfalfa, edible beans, sugar beets and sunflowers) are considered for irrigation levels ranging from zero (dryland) to fully watered. It is a non-linear optimization model, built in an Excel spreadsheet. Water Optimizer was originally developed in 2005-2006. In 2007 model coverage was expanded from 18 Nebraska counties to state-wide coverage. Model capabilities were expanded to include simultaneous multi-field analysis. Users can evaluate up to five fields (wells) at one time and the model will allocate the available water to the fields where it is most profitable. Users of Water Optimizer who want to evaluate alternative strategies using default prices, costs, water requirements and yields need to input only the following data for their field: county where the field is located, dominant soil type (coarse, medium or fine textured), field size in acres, irrigation system type (center pivot or gravity at three alternative efficiency levels), irrigation energy source (electric, diesel, propane, gas or natural gas), and their annual water allocation entered in acre-inches per acre. Users who believe that their situation may differ from the default values by enough to cause different best management strategies can easily change any of the following parameters: crop prices, fully-watered crop yields, cost items for crops and cost items for irrigation. When using 2007 relative prices for corn and soybeans instead of the historical average prices the results were quite different. In 2007 the price of all crops increased substantially with corn increasing by the largest amount. Under these conditions, continuous corn was the most profitable crop in most areas, and the best limited water strategy in the central 2/3 of Nebraska was to deficit irrigate corn and not reduce irrigated area until the water supply fell below 60 percent of the full requirement, compared to 75 to 80 percent under historical average prices. Essentially, higher crop prices increase the profitability of irrigation in most areas by more than they increase profits from dryland, thus making it profitable to deficit irrigate at lower and lower levels instead of shifting to dryland. In the extreme western and eastern parts of the state, however, 2007 prices didnt alter the optimum strategy by very much. The water optimizer model may be downloaded from the University of Nebraska Extension website http://extension-water.unl.edu. Continuing Activities. Pressure on the Ogallala Aquifer from increased irrigation has prompted Kansas researchers to look at options for irrigators facing reduced water allocations. In a holistic approach, a web-based risk analysis tool is being developed that incorporates scientifically based information with a producers site-specific knowledge to assist them in making informed cropping decisions under a variety of water use scenarios. Several irrigated crop yield functions were developed for the Winter Garden and Texas High Plains areas of Texas using long-term simulations of the EPIC model based on various irrigation timings and rates, soil types, and weather stations. Similar to the LRGV functions of last year, they relate yield to precipitation, irrigation rates and timings, N fertilizer levels, percent sand in the topsoil, and interaction terms. IRRG-AID spreadsheets and User Guides were developed for irrigators to utilize in strategic decision-making (cropman.brc.tamus.edu). USBR is reviewing IRRG-AID for use in CO and AZ and the spreadsheets are also applicable for use in NM and OK. In western Nebraska, evapotranspiration data are being used to improve estimates of water use for irrigation management and watershed modeling. Four types of models are being evaluated: simple irrigation water requirement models, daily soil water balance models, watershed-scale models and models used to interpolate between dates of satellite images. Results show that models are reasonably accurate for irrigated conditions. The watershed-scale models and the irrigation water requirement models overestimated evapotranspiration for dryland conditions for many conditions. The daily soil water balance performed better for dryland conditions and for the non growing season when crop residue shades and insolates the soil surface. Objective 3: Assess the effectiveness of alternative management institutions, laws, and policies for water allocation Activities and Accomplishments Incentives and barriers to water conservation in the Rio Grande Basin were identified and analyzed from surveys and other data by NM and TX scientists. Existing barriers to water conservation include policies on carry-over storage, interstate compacts, conservation attitudes, land tenure arrangements, and duty of water uncertainty. A low water price was discourages water conservation even if other institutions promote it. Water conserving policies can be more effectively implemented where water institutions and programs are designed to be compatible with the underlying scarcity. Further additions and improvements to the multi-state (TX and NM) and bi-national (US-MX) Rio Grande Watershed Council regional coordinated water resources database and GIS are improving institutional collaboration of irrigation districts, federal agencies, universities and other organizations. $200,000 was acquired under this program to install and provide access to real-time monitoring of flows and water quality conditions. In 2007 Supalla and Martin initiated a study to evaluate the use of cap and trade as a groundwater management strategy in the Republican Basin in Nebraska, where the rights to pump have been capped, but trade between wells has not been allowed except under very limited circumstances. Preliminary results suggest that trading could reduce the cost of limiting irrigation to augment stream flows could be reduced by up to $30 per acre, depending on the initial water right allocation and on the amount of well to well differences in pumping costs, irrigation efficiency and crop yields. Stated choice experiments were conducted in Kansas with farmers to elicit their willingness to participate in a Water Quality Trading (WQT) market under different conditions. Participation in such a market would involve implementation of environmentally beneficial best management practices, in exchange for a monetary payment. The data were analyzed with a mixed logit model to reveal farmers willingness to accept values (minimum acceptable payments) under different market scenarios. Farmers were found to be heterogeneous, with some of them heavily discounting payments in situations where enrollment procedures were onerous or where penalties for contract violations were large (Peterson et al., 2007). These results imply that WQT market rules must be set with care to encourage widespread participation. In North Dakota, Hearne conducted an analysis of the attributes of active and collaborative local water management organizations (WMOs). This is part of a wider research effort on local water management institutions and organizations. These WMOs are local units of government responsible for water and natural resources management. They include Soil Conservation Districts and Water Resource District in North Dakota, and Watershed Districts and Soil and Water Conservation Districts in Minnesota. Seventy-eight surveys were sent directly to the organization's administrators, eleven to Watershed Districts (WDs), forty-one to Conservation Districts (CDs), twenty-three to Water Resource Districts (WRDs), and two to tribal nations. A statistical analysis of a nearly 20 activities as dependent variables and 15-20 attributes as explanatory variables is under progress. Research in Hawaii focused on a review, discussion, and analysis of Hawaiis water conservation policies and recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the current policies. Population growth, economic expansion, and a strong visitor industry have contributed on a sustained basis to increasing demands on water resources in Hawaii. As an island state, Hawaiis water supply is limited to locally available sources. Essentially all of Honolulus residential water is supplied by groundwater aquifer, requiring a 25-year cycle for rainfall to percolate through the basal rock into the aquifer and be put to productive use. Research in Hawaii examined current water conservation policies and proposed improvements to best meet future demands. The focus was limited to the City and County of Honolulu (CCH), which accounts for 71% of Hawaiis total population, and also most business and industry, including visitor services. Our study projected the demand for water in Hawaii for the 2005  2030 period by different sectors  residential, visitor, agriculture, golf courses, and industrial/ commercial. Total increase in demand was projected at 34% during this period. The Hawaii research reviewed existing water conservation policies and suggested specific improvements. Policy improvements were found most successful in the residential and visitor sectors. Mandatory residential use restrictions were estimated to reduce demand by 15%, far more effective than the 4% achieved under voluntary policies. Conservation pricing using increasing - block rates was recommended for all sectors to achieve economic efficiency. Recycling waste water could save another 6.4 mgd of freshwater resources. For the residential sector, policymakers have a menu of policy options to choose from, starting with relatively moderate reductions (4% to 10%) from voluntary and pricing measures. To achieve larger reductions in demand (> 15 %), they will likely need to consider relatively large price increases, more stringent mandatory policies, or a combination of policy instruments. A leadership opportunity exists for policymakers to initiate a comprehensive waste water recycling program island-wide. In the short term, however, an innovative program with incentives and cost sharing is vital to realize the potential benefits of recycling. Continuing Activities. Hawaiis collaboration with New Mexico, Kansas, and North Dakota in identifying a professional forum to present and discuss the key issues of political externalities in water resources management in the American West is continuing. Researchers in Hawaii plan to focus our research in the year ahead on a comprehensive analysis of recurring drought conditions that have posed a serious threat to agricultural production and other water-dependent activities. As part of this study, we plan to investigate the potential for water banking and other measures. Hearne is conducting a stated choice experiments analysis of preferences towards different basin management alternatives. Survey data is currently being analyzed and results will be available in early 2008. A new Ph.D. program on the Economics and Management of Water Resources and the Environment was developed at Kansas State University from a grant from the CSREES National Needs Graduate Training competition. Fellows in this program will fulfill all the standard rigorous requirements of an economics PhD, combined with water-related coursework in other sciences, immersion in interdisciplinary research, and international research internships. An investigation of the gains from optimal groundwater use management for heterogeneous users was conducted (Saak and Peterson, 2007 AAEA Selected Paper). A simple model shows that the relationship between farm size and pumping rates depends on the production technology and farmers utility of income. Greater inequality in farm sizes impacts the overall efficiency of water use in both dynamic (i.e. the speed with which the aquifer is depleted) and spatial dimensions (i.e. the distribution of pumping rates and income across farmers in each irrigation season). Under little inequality in farm sizes and certain conditions, the dynamic efficiency of water use is low, but the spatial efficiency (i.e. the distribution of application rates per acre on small and large farms) is relatively high. Both types of inefficiencies are exacerbated under intermediate levels of inequality in farm sizes. Finally, when the inequality in farm sizes is sufficiently high, the efficiency of groundwater allocation in both temporal and spatial dimensions improves. The effects of the heterogeneity in the elevation of the bottom of the aquifer and the initial stocks on the patterns of equilibrium and optimal groundwater exploitation are also investigated. Under certain conditions the user with a larger initial stock benefits from the commonality of groundwater. Researchers from Kansas and Texas conducted a survey of policy makers, state water managers, and other stakeholders which identified preferred policy alternatives for extending the economic life of the Ogallala aquifer. Results suggest that a voluntary incentive-based program that compensates landowners to permanently convert irrigated cropland to dryland is the preferred policy.

BenDor, T.K. and Brozovi, N., 2007, Determinants of spatial and temporal patterns in compensatory wetland mitigation, Environmental Management, v. 40, p. 349-364, DOI 10.1007/s00267-006-0310-y. BenDor, T.K. and Brozovi, N., 2007, The role of regulatory change on wetlands mitigation, National Wetlands Newsletter, v. 29, no. 4, p. 10-13. BenDor, T.K., Brozovi, N., and Pallathucheril, V., 2007, Assessing the socioeconomic impacts of wetland mitigation in the Chicago region, Journal of the American Planning Association, v.73, p. 263-282, DOI: 10.1080/01944360708977977. BenDor, T.K. and Brozovi, N., 2007, Wetland mitigation method selection and developer decision-making processes. Paper presented at the Associated Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Brozovi, N., Sunding, D.L., and Zilberman, D., 2007, Estimating business and residential water supply interruption losses from catastrophic events, Water Resources Research, v. 43, W08423, doi:10.1029/2005WR004782. Brozovi, N. and Schlenker, W., 2007, Resilience, uncertainty, and the role of economics in ecosystem management. Selected paper presented at the American Agricultural Economics Association annual meeting, Portland, Oregon. Buell, Thomas and R. Supalla. Economic Implications of Alternative Futures for Lake McConaughy. Poster Paper, 2007 Water Colloquium, October 12, 2007, Lincoln, Nebraska. Golden B.B., and J.M. Peterson. Evaluation of Water Conservation from More Efficient Irrigation Systems. Staff Paper 06-03, Department of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University, June 2006. Gopalakrishnan C. 2007. Natural Disasters and Extreme Climate Change: Policy Implications for Water Resources Management. Book of Abstracts. 7th IIASA-DPRI Forum on Coping with Regional Disasters, September 19-21, 2007. Gopalakrishnan, C. Desalination in: Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World, New York: Oxford University Press. Greenlee, Janet. Brian Hurd, Mark Heil, Christopher Brown, Nori Koehler, Alfredo Granados. 2007. Using GIS to Assess Water Resource Vulnerability on the Border. Poster presented the University Research Conference, October 6, 2006. Harman, W.L., M. Dozier, T.J. Gerik, J.R. Williams, and M. Magre. 2007. Management Strategies to Reduce Field Losses of Atrazine: Long-term Implications Using Simulation. In process, Journal of Environmental Quality. Hearne. R Evolving Water Management Institutions in the Red River Basin. Forthcoming Environmental Management. Hearne, R. 2007.Water Markets as a Mechanism for Intersectoral Water Transfers: The Elqui Basin in Chile Forthcoming Paddy and Water Environment. December 2007. Hurd, B.H. and J. Coonrod. 2007. Climate Change and Its Implications for New Mexicos Water Resources and Economic Opportunities. Prepared for the National Commission on Energy Policy, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM. 46 p. Hurd, Brian H., L. Allen Torell, and Kirk C. McDaniel. 2007. Ranch and Rangeland Management: Perspectives of the Rangeland Economy and its Relationship to Weather Information, Report to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Associate (NOAA), June 5, 2007. Hurd, Brian H. 2007. Adaptation Challenges in the Southwest under Climate Change. Invited presentation to the Climate Change Adaptation Workshop for New Mexico Natural Resource Managers, sponsored by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS), and Institute for the Study of Planet Earth. Albuquerque, NM; October 22, 2007. Hurd, Brian H. and Julia Coonrod. 2007. Climate Change and its Implications for New Mexicos Water Resources and Economic Opportunities. Presentation at the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) Annual Meeting. Albuquerque, NM; November 12, 2007. Hurd, Brian H. and Julia Coonrod. 2007Climate Change and its Implications for New Mexicos Water Resources and Economic Opportunities. . Presentation for the NMSU Water Lecture Series. Las Cruces, NM; November 8, 2007. Hurd, Brian H. and Julia Coonrod. 2007Climate Change and its Implications for New Mexicos Water Resources and Economic Opportunities. Invited presentation at the 52nd Annual New Mexico Water Conference, Beyond the Year of Water: Living within Our Water Limitations, Santa Fe, NM; November 29, 2007. Hurd, Brian H. and Julia Coonrod. 2007 Economic Impacts of Climate Change on New Mexico's Water Resources, Brian H. Hurd and Julia Coonrod. Poster presented at the University Research Conference, October 5, 2007. Hurd, Brian H. 2007. Water Rights: A New Mexico Perspective, Invited presentation to the Four State Water Forum, Oklahoma City, OK, March 29-30, 2007. Hurd, Brian H. 2007. Challenges of Adapting to a Changing Climate, Invited presentation to the UCLA School of Law, Frankel Symposium, Coping With Global Warming, Los Angeles, CA, March 2, 2007. Hurd, Brian H. 2007. Challenges and Opportunities in Adapting to Climate Changes, , invited presentation to the NM Governors Drought Task Force, 4th Annual Drought Summit  2006, Climate Change: What Does It Mean For New Mexico?, Albuquerque, NM, October 18, 2006. Lacewell, R.D., M.E. Rister, A.W. Sturdivant, M.M. DuBois, C.S. Rogers, and E.K. Seawright. 2007. Expected Economic Benefits of the El Morillo Drain. Texas Water Resources Institute. TR-299. College Station, TX. January 2007. Lacewell, R.D., M.E. Rister, A.W. Sturdivant, M.M. DuBois, C.S. Rogers, and E.K. Seawright. 2007. Preliminary Results  Expected Economic Benefits of the El Morillo Drain. Presented to the Rio Grande Regional Water Planning Group. Weslaco, TX. January 4, 2007. Lagos, L. O., D. L. Martin, S. Irmak and X. Zhou. 2007. Evaluating Evapotranspiration with SWAT a Distributed Watershed Model and the FAO-56 Penman-Monteith Method. Presented at ASABE International Meeting in Minneapolis, MN. ASABE Paper Number: 07-2294. American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. St. Joseph, MI. Magre, M., W. Harman, T. Gerik, and E. Steglich. 2007. IRRG-AID: Irrigation Strategy Worksheet for Producers, High Plains of Texas. In process, BREC publication. Magre, M., W. Harman, T. Gerik, and E. Steglich. 2007. IRRG-AID: Irrigation Strategy Worksheet for Producers, Winter Garden, Texas. In process, BREC publication. Masanan Kanagaraj and Brian Hurd. 2007. Investigating the Sensitivity of Agriculture to Salinity in the Lower Rio Grande of New Mexico, poster presented the University Research Conference, October 6, 2006. McMullen, Brian, C. Thompson, R. Supalla and D. Martin. . Managing Limited Water Under Alternative Geographic and Economic Conditions. Poster Paper. 2007 Water Colloquium, October 12, 2007, Lincoln, Nebraska Michelsen, A.M. 2007. Economic Evaluation of Salinity Impacts. Rio Grande Region Salinity Management Workshop. El Paso, TX. Proceedings. May 21-22, 2007. Michelsen, A.M. 2007. Rio Grande Basin Initiative Collaboration Highlights. Joint Rio Grande Basin Initiatives Annual Conference. South Padre Island, TX. May 14-17, 2007. Michelsen, A.M. and Z. Sheng. 2007. El Paso Floods, Federal Agency Responses and Recommendations. Natural Hazards in Water Resources, Universities Council on Water Resources and National Institutes for Water Resources Annual Conference. Bosie, ID. July 24-26, 2007. Abstract, Proceedings CD. Michelsen, A.M. and Z. Sheng. 2007. Paso del Norte 2006 Floods: Water Resource Agency Assessments and Recommendations for Improved Management and Preparation. American Water Resources Association Annual Conference. Albuquerque, NM. November 12-15, 2007. Abstract, Proceedings CD. Peterson, J.M. J.A. Fox, N. Hendricks, J.C. Leatherman, and C. Smith. Choice Experiments to Assess Farmers Willingness to Participate in a Water Quality Trading Market. Selected Paper at the American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Portland, July 2007. Rister, M.E., R.D. Lacewell, and A.W. Sturdivant. 2007. Economic and Financial Costs of Saving Water and Energy: Preliminary Analysis for Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2 (San Juan) - Replacement of Pipeline Units I-7A, I-18, and I-22. Texas Water Resources Institute. TR-303. College Station, TX. June 2007. Robinson, R.C., A.M. Michelsen and N.R. Gollehon. 2007. Mitigating Water Shortages in a Multiple Risk Environment. Universities Council on Water Resources and National Institutes for Water Resources Annual Conference. Bosie, ID. July 24-26, 2007. Abstract, Proceedings CD. Rogers, C.S., M.E. Rister, R.D. Lacewell, and A.W. Sturdivant. 2007. Identifying Most Economic Sources of Potable Water: Case Study in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Proceedings of Hazards in Water Resources, Universities Council on Water Resources Annual Meeting. Boise, ID. July 24-26, 2007. Abstract only. Saak, A.E. and J.M. Peterson. Groundwater Use under Incomplete Information. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 54(September 2007): 214-228. Saak, A.E. and J.M. Peterson. Groundwater Pumping with Heterogeneous Users. Selected Paper at the American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Portland, July 2007. Smith, C.M., J.M. Peterson, and J.C. Leatherman. Attitudes of Great Plains Producers About Best Management Practices, Conservation Programs, and Water Quality. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 62(September-October 2007): 97A-103A. Sheng, Z., E. Herrera and A.M. Michelsen. 2007. Conceptual Model for Flood Control Planning in the Lower El Paso Valley. Natural Hazards in Water Resources, Universities Council on Water Resources and National Institutes for Water Resources Conference. Bosie, ID. July 24-26, 2007. Abstract, Proceedings CD. Sheng, Z., S. Tillery, J.P. King, B. Creel, C. Brown, A.M. Michelsen, R, Srinivasan, and A. Granados. 2006. The Development of a Coordinated Database for Water Resources and Flow Model in the Paso Del Norte Watershed. For the Paso del Norte Watershed Council. Texas Water Resources Institute TR-297. Sturdivant, A.W., R.D. Lacewell, M.E. Rister, M.M. DuBois, C.S. Rogers, and E.K. Seawright. 2007. Final Results  Expected Economic Benefits of the El Morillo Drain. Scheduled meeting of Rio Grande Regional Water Authority. McAllen, TX. January 16, 2007. Sturdivant, A.W., R.D. Lacewell, M.E. Rister, M.M. DuBois, C.S. Rogers, and E.K. Seawright. 2007. Salinity Control by the El Morillo Drain, South Texas. Annual meeting of Universities Council on Water Resources. Boise, ID. July 24, 2007. Sturdivant, A.W., M.E. Rister, and R.D. Lacewell. 2007. VIDRA - Valley Irrigation District Rate Analyzer II for Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2. Hidalgo County Irrigation District No 2. San Juan, TX. September 2007. Sturdivant, A.W., M.E. Rister, R.D. Lacewell, J.W. Norris, J. Leal, C.S. Rogers, J. Garza, and J. Adams. 2006. Economic Costs of Desalination: A Focus on South Texas with Extended Lessons. Proceedings of Environmental Sustainability: U.S.-Mexico Issues CREST-RESACCA Annual Conference. Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. November 15-17, 2006. Abstract only. Sturdivant, A.W., M.E. Rister, R.D. Lacewell, J.W. Norris, J. Leal, C.S. Rogers, J. Garza, J. Adams, and C.N. Boyer. 2007. Economic Costs of Desalination in South Texas  A Case Study of the Southmost Facility. Texas Water Resources Institute. TR-295. College Station, TX. September 2007. Sturdivant, A.W., M.E. Rister, R.D. Lacewell, and C.S. Rogers. 2006. Water & Economics: Contemporary Issues in the Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley. Texas Cooperative Extension, District 12 Fall Faculty Conference. Weslaco, TX. November 14, 2006. Sturdivant, A.W., M.E. Rister, R.D. Lacewell, C.S. Rogers, E.K. Seawright, C. Boyer, A. Leidner. 2007. Economists: Task 1. Joint Rio Grande Basin Initiatives Annual Conference. South Padre Island, TX, May 16, 2007. Sturdivant, A.W., C.S. Rogers, M.M. DuBois, R.D. Lacewell, and M.E. Rister. 2007. Salinity Control by the El Morillo Drain, South Texas. Proceedings of Hazards in Water Resources Universities Council on Water Resources Annual Meeting. Boise, ID. July 24-26, 2007. Abstract only. Sturdivant, A.W., C.S. Rogers, M.E. Rister, R.D. Lacewell, J.W. Norris, J. Leal, J.A. Garza, and J. Adams. 2007. Economic Costs of Desalination in South Texas: A Case Study. Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education, Issue 137, Pages 21-39. September 2007. Supalla, R. J., T. Buell and S. Stricker. 2007. Economics of Management Options for Lake McConaughy. Department of Agricultural Economics Research Report 181, University of Nebraska- Lincoln. Supalla, Raymond J. Biofuels: An Emerging Water Resources Hazard. Presentation at annual meeting of Universities Council of Water Resources, Boise, Idaho, July 25-27, 2007. Thompson, Christopher, B. McMullen, R. Supalla and D. Martin. Cap and Trade as a Groundwater Management Policy: Evidence from Frontier County, Nebraska. Poster Paper. 2007 Water Colloquium, October 12, 2007, Lincoln, Nebraska. Torell, L. Allen, Kirk C. McDaniel, and Brian H. Hurd. 2007. Exploratory Case Study on the Value of Improving Soil Moisture Forecast Information for Rangeland Management, Report to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Associate (NOAA), June 5, 2007. Torell, L. Allen, Kirk C. McDaniel, and Brian H. Hurd. 2007. Using Soil Moisture to Estimate the Economic Value of Rainfall Events for Range Forage Production., presention to the Society for Range Management and the American Forage and Grassland Council, January 26 - 31, 2008. Upendram, S. and J.M. Peterson. Irrigation Technology and Water Conservation in the High Plains Region. Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education 137(September 2007): 40-46. Ward, F.A., A.M. Michelsen and L DeMouche. 2007. Barriers to Water Conservation in the Rio Grande Basin. Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 43.1, p.237-253. Wittler, J.M., G. E. Cardon , T. K. Gates, C. A. Cooper and P. L. Sutherland. 2006. Calibration of Electromagnetic Induction for Regional Assessment of Soil Water Salinity in an Irrigated Valley. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering. (in press).