ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a restatement of the themes with which this part of the volume began. Namely, the principal function to be performed by western water institutions in the coming decades is reallocation of a fully appropriated scarce resource. The business of these institutions is changing, and the institutions themselves must also change if they are to successfully perform this new task assigned to them by society. There is Arizona in which pressures against the historical dominance of agricultural interests in water matters have accumulated to the point that strong, even extraordinary, legislative action has been taken in delegating authority to a special commission. Yet, it appears that the coalition of non-agricultural interests may have redressed an imbalance in favor of agriculture with an imbalance in opposition to it. In Utah and New Mexico, institutional problems still persist, but there is reason to believe the basic institutional structure may be adequate to the task.
