Before the settlement of the western United States, the Colorado River flowed freely. Starting in cool mountain streams, the river eventually became a thundering, silty force of nature as it entered the canyons along its course. The river nourished wetlands and other riparian habitats from the upper reaches of the Rocky Mountains to the Sea of ​​Cortés delta in northwestern Mexico. Settlers along the river exploited these waters primarily for agriculture via irrigation canals, but flooding from spring runoff wreaked havoc on farmland, prevented development of the floodplain and full use of water, a waste in the eyes of Western farmers. To meet current and future water demands in the West, the federal government funded and built dams, flooding canyons and other tracts of land along the Colorado River. Decades of political wrangling and compromise, two interstate agreements, numerous legislative acts and a judicial decree gave rise to these massive and concrete structures. These documents, known collectively as the River Law, divided the Colorado River among the states, Native American tribes, and nations that depend on the river and ordered the construction and operation of dams and other major projects along the river. river. and drought protection, hydroelectric power, water storage, and timed water releases to meet peak summer demand, but this generosity for development came with environmental costs. The seasonal flood, while destructive, nourished riparian areas along the banks of the river with silt and allowed native fish to thrive in the warm, murky water. Today, dams block much of the silt, destroying riparian habitat and decreasing dam capacity. Clean, fresh, middle-of-paper mining is generally defined as the extraction of groundwater beyond a replenishment rate that will return the aquifer to a level at which it is economically feasible to extract. water." A. Dan Tarlock, L. of Water Rights and Resources § 6:13.Conjunctive Management in Utah, supra note 17 at 18-19.Id.Id.Id. at 21-22.Id. at 50.Id . at 49.Id.Id.Id. at 50.David Sunding, The Price of Water: Market-Based Strategies are Needed to Cope with Scarcity, 54 California Agriculture 2, 56 (March-April 2000) Property and Environmental Research Center, Colorado River Water Bank: Making Water Conservation Profitable, http://www.perc.org/files/Colorado%20Case%20Study.pdf (last accessed November 15, 2011).Id.US Bureau of Reclamation, Quality of Water Colorado River Basin: Progress Report No. 22, 19 (2005) [hereinafter Report 22].Id.