Decision-making and valuation processes

The research and conclusions about the history of water use in the United States, particularly with respect to the Bureau and the Corps, is appalling.  However, I fail to see where it leads us.  Even as mentioned in the articles regarding coalition and consensus, we have a lot of knowledge and speak a lot of words about issues but fail to bring change to the status quo.  I also believe that the water resources issue is extremely complex and extends far beyond the scope of Cadillac Desert.  Although the information presented gives an example of the situation, it does not lead us to the source of the problem.

The water resources issue in the West has a great deal to do with the decision-making process and the process by which we value things in society, and particularly in the U.S..  In the U.S. we make very big decisions based on imperfect information and often in very dire times, such as during war.  Our inability to reexamine the merit of the decisions later on is one great failing of the decision-making process.  One might also bring up the issue of pork legislation which seems beyond remedy.  Many dam projects where thrown in as riders to totally unrelated legislation. 

A separate but tangential issue is that of valuation.  Valuing the goods and the bads of a particular decision, so called cost/benefit analysis, takes place on several levels in society ranging from personal decisions to the decisions of Congress.  Valuation is also vitally important to the function of markets.  Unfortunately, environmental costs and benefits have never been properly valued.  In fact, more often then not we simply place no value on the environment, by default valuing it at zero.  Water is a perfect example of this problem of valuation, and in some sense falls into the category of a public good.  If we negate the benefits of waters to the support of ecosystems and other such benefits, we are bound to undervalue and therefore overuse water in exchange for the benefits that the water use provides.  Subsidies should also be despised in mature markets.  Subsidizing water in an the agricultural industry that overproduces is bound to lead to an inefficient use of water. 

Lastly, the inherent value of water will never be represented as long as we view it as a simple commodity.  Many great civilizations have passed because they failed to manage properly for the long-term and failed to err on the safe or conservative side of water use.  If we continue to discount environmental costs and overvalue the benefits from stemming from water use, sooner or later we are going to go broke.