"Using Water Naturally," Illahee: Journal for the Northwest Environment 11 (nos. 1 & 2, 1995):94-98. Online at: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/48101

Using water naturally can seem to have little to do with using water ethically. Contemporary water use is by prior appropriation, where seniors have rights to water they first took. This develops into water use economically, when water is a property right that can be traded in markets. Neither use considers a still more fundamental need to use water ecoystemically. Many present and planned water uses are unnatural, and unwise. Asking about using water naturally can better orient us to what we ought to do, both prudentially and morally.

Shorter version in Kathleen C. Klein, ed., Seeking an Integrated Approach to Watershed Management in the South Platte Basin (Fort Collins, CO: Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, Colorado State University, 1993), pp. 3-8.

Revised version in Building Clean Water Communities: Proceedings, Sixth Annual Nonpoint Source Pollution Management Workshop, 1998, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 7, March 23-25, Lawrence, KS, pages 70-84, Judy Scherff, Coordinator.

"Using Water Naturally," Natural Resources Law Center, University of Colorado, Western Water Policy Project, Discussion Series Paper No. 9, 1991. Original paper