Interstate Arrangements & Compacts

Allocation of interstate rivers among states can be accomplished in three ways: through litigation before the Supreme Court, which uses a doctrine of “equitable apportionment”; through the use of legally-binding interstate agreements known as compacts (as authorized in the Constitution); and, potentially, through the independent action of Congress.  Of these approaches, the compact approach is king, as both the courts and Congress have consistently pushed for the use of compacts as the best way to devise interstate apportionments with political and technical strength.  For more information see:

Regional Water Resources Management in the Western United States: A Historical Review of Institutional Issues and Experimentation (Appendix A of Resource Management at the Watershed Level) (1997), a special report by the Univ. of Colorado Natural Resources Law Center for the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission.

Water Allocation Compacts in the West: An Overview (2002), a report by Doug Kenney of the Univ. of Colorado Natural Resources Law Center.

Text of all Western Water Allocation Compacts

Also visit the WWA’s Colorado River web pages for materials about the first, the most famous, and perhaps most problematic of all compacts

 

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