INSTITUTIONAL OPTIONS FOR THE COLORADO-RIVER

In many interstate river basins, the institutional arrangements for th e governance and management of the shared water resource are not adequ ately designed to effectively address the many political, legal, socia l, and economic issues that arise when the demands on the resource exc eed the available supplies. Even under normal hydrologic conditions, t his problem is frequently seen in the Colorado River Basin. During sev ere sustained drought, it is likely that the deficiencies of the exist ing arrangements would present a formidable barrier to an effective dr ought response, interfering with efforts to quickly and efficiently co nserve and reallocate available supplies to support a variety of criti cal needs. In the United States, several types of regional arrangement s are seen for the administration of interstate water resources. These arrangements include compact commissions, interstate councils, basin interagency committees, interagency-interstate commissions, federal-in terstate compact commissions, federal regional agencies, and the singl e federal administrator. Of these options, the federal-interstate comp act commission is the most appropriate arrangement for correcting the current deficiencies of the Colorado River institution, under all hydr ologic conditions.