Water conservation you can trace.
WaterCard is building the infrastructure to connect official water administration, hydrologic evidence, authorized conservation programs, and transparent ledger records—so voluntary water conservation can be measured, verified, and rewarded.
Our objective is simple: make compensated conservation credible enough for water managers, agricultural producers, businesses, and the public to trust.
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WaterCard is a public benefit company developing the administrative, evidentiary, and accounting infrastructure needed to support voluntary, temporary, and compensated water conservation.
WaterCard is designed to connect conservation projects with official records, measurement evidence, applicable program requirements, administrative review, purchaser recognition, and transparent retirement.
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Each WaterCard purchase is recorded in the WaterCard ledger and associated with a unique verification record for the quantity purchased.
A WaterCard does not convey ownership of a water right, a right to divert or use water, governmental certification, or an entitlement to any physical water supply.
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Your purchase supports WaterCard’s initial conservation demonstration at Norse Sky Ranch in Plateau Valley, Colorado. The demonstration is based on approximately 66 acres voluntarily taken out of irrigation within the Colorado River Basin.
Each purchase is recorded in the WaterCard ledger and associated with a unique verification record for the quantity purchased. WaterCard is using this initial project to build and test the evidence, accounting, verification, and purchaser-recognition workflow that may later support authorized conservation programs and additional participating farms and ranches.
WaterCard is developing the capability to connect future conservation outcomes to official state water administration, program rules, field-level evidence, and authorized review. Those integrations remain under development.
Important: A WaterCard does not convey a water right, a right to use water, governmental certification, or ownership of physical water.
Water conservation is only credible when the physical evidence, water-right context, administrative decisions, and resulting accounting record remain connected. WaterCard is building that chain of custody.
Built for accountable conservation
Designed to incorporate official state water-right and water-administration records
State-aware
Built to preserve source data, measurement methods, revisions, limitations, and integrity hashes in an auditable record.
Evidence-based
An application, calculation, or data source does not independently create a WaterCard. Recognition remains subject to applicable program rules and authorized review.
Program-controlled
Official federal hydrologic information and carefully identified market signals can help show when additional compensated conservation may be most valuable.
Risk-responsive
What exists today
From Colorado River conditions to conservation action
WaterCard’s current prototype can process purchases, create unique verification records, capture official Bureau of Reclamation Lake Powell observations as versioned evidence, and display federal hydrologic information alongside carefully labeled market-derived risk signals.
WaterCard is also developing connections to state water-administration systems and OpenET measurement data. These integrations are intended to help conservation-program managers organize applications, evidence, quantification, administrative review, authorized quantities, issuance, and retirement within one auditable system.
These capabilities do not replace governmental water-right determinations, state administration, or conservation-program approval. External data and market signals do not independently authorize the issuance of WaterCards.
How is the price of WaterCard determined?
The price of WaterCard is determined by a market-based, water value index comprised of the following:
Nasdaq Veles California Water Index value
Colorado-Big Thompson Water Market price
Arizona Groundwater Market Prices
Agricultural Water Prices in the California Central Valley.
Municipal Water Pricing
Price of Quality Alfalfa Hay
This index provides a balanced calculation of the WaterCard price based on several Western water markets and relevant agricultural input prices. The current unit price for WaterCard conserved water credits is $.0070 per gallon. Had WaterCard been in place, over the past 20 quarters, it’s price would have reached a low of $.0065 per gallon and a high of $.0075 per gallon.
Take Action
Your purchase supports WaterCard’s initial conservation demonstration at Norse Sky Ranch in Plateau Valley, Colorado. The demonstration is based on approximately 66 acres voluntarily taken out of irrigation within the Colorado River Basin.
Each purchase is recorded in the WaterCard ledger and associated with a unique verification record for the quantity purchased. WaterCard is using this initial project to build and test the evidence, accounting, verification, and purchaser-recognition workflow that may later support authorized conservation programs and additional participating farms and ranches.
WaterCard is developing the capability to connect future conservation outcomes to official state water administration, program rules, field-level evidence, and authorized review. Those integrations remain under development.
Important: A WaterCard does not convey a water right, a right to use water, governmental certification, or ownership of physical water.