ABSTRACT
Groundwater is developed largely by private rather than by public investment. The public investment that is involved is by water districts rather than by federal and state governments. Private firms and water districts are also active in multipurpose, multiunit surface-water development. Groundwater use is quantitatively at least as significant as surface-water use, and integration of the two uses raises some of the most important issues for water policy. Water research can use two approaches: First, through various computational techniques of benefit-cost analysis one can project benefits accruing to different groups of beneficiaries and allocate costs and repayment more or less in proportion. The second approach focuses on alternative characteristics of water-district law. California water law has performed relatively well— as compared with other water-law systems—in stimulating water development, allocating water, and protecting water quality over more than a century of profound changes in the economic environment.
