Bridging Trust Gaps: Building a Consensus Engine in an Interstate Water Dispute

Client Need: A Western state that had endured a Supreme Court water lawsuit lasting over a decade had settled the hydrology issues but not the trust issues among the diverse entities using water in the region – farmers, industry, municipalities, and residents. Starting from the statement “Water is a shared resource no one owns,” the state needed a partner to align functions, outreach and communication. 

Challenges: The state had to meet Federal conservation requirements while honoring international treaty agreements, century-old water compacts and individual water rights, and ensuring long-term economic viability for diverse interests in extreme drought conditions.

Vox Optima Says Yes: Vox Optima immediately recognized that this was more than a public information campaign; this was a critical requirement to build consensus in crisis.

First, we rapidly scaled up a strategic alignment capability by bringing on board leading change and alignment leaders from Navy operational, engineering and procurement enterprises. This power team from the military quickly saw that water, like military readiness, is a “zero defects” environment with the same sense of urgency. We developed a single system data-driven metric for our client to operate from and then built actionable frameworks for stakeholder engagement.

Next, we brought together the stakeholders – irrigation districts, farmers, municipalities, industry – everyone who needed a seat at the table. We helped them develop a charter, leadership, and a workplan to develop their own recommendations and solutions to bring to the state for consideration in the long-term water management plan.

Finally, as the litigation approached settlement, we took the complex modeling that the highly capable state engineering team built for water delivery compliance and transformed it into an easy-to-understand app that water users, legal reviewers, government oversight authorities, and all parties will be able to easily access and adopt for compliance and verification. The app is just part of a suite of tech tools Vox Optima has built to accelerate consensus building, engagement and outreach.

Is it public information, outreach and engagement? Sure. Turbocharged with technology to get our client where they need to go - fast!