Applying a water market system to restore an ecosystem

My friend DM, shared this video with me. It's an inspiring story about how farmers, industry and citizens have an incentive to conserve the amount of water they use and return it to degraded ecosystems (e.g. streams and creeks) that have seen water levels drop over the years. For years, senior water rights in places like Montana have allowed right holders to use copious amounts of water. Why wouldn't they use lots of water? If they don't use the water, they risk losing their water right. Talk about incentive to conserve!

Rob Harmon is now working with farmers to measure water and divide it into one thousand increments, each increment gets a serial number and a certificate. The brewers in the area are worried about their "water footprints" and branding images. They use a lot of water and need some mechanism to return it back to the ecosystem. So they buy those certificates to restore water to the ecosystem.

The market-based system developed by Rob Harmon is based on the utilization of incentives and providing the right information to water users about how they can save money and restore ecosystem integrity.