If you were to trace the dips and rises in water sales across the American West onto a graph, the line would fall in synch with basic economics.  In a recession, when dollars are scarce, water transactions are few and far between. But when a region booms, freeing up cash for all kinds of development, water becomes the limiting resource; individuals, companies and governments, scrambling to secure access to water, will pay big money to own someone else’s right. More often than not, it’s a farmer who sells it to them…

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