Profound changes are now occurring in the Colorado River Basin. New societal demands for water are on a collision course with vested legal rights and past commitments. The exploitation of fossil fuels in the area poses great problems for the traditional paramount concerns of reclamation and agriculture. The ' law of the river ' is actually a composite of many statutes, compacts, court decisions, contracts, regulations and administrative rulings. Generally speaking, the flow of the Colorado River is divided among users on the basis of beneficial consumptive use. The allocation system operates at four levels: international, interregional, interstate, and intrastate. Legal problems on the river are partially the function of changes in [...]
