ABSTRACT
As noted at the end of chapter 3, the steadily increasing human activity in the Colorado River Basin and throughout the Southwest has placed growing stress on the water institutions of the region. The situation is exacerbated by some special characteristics of the Colorado and other rivers in the region such as highly variable annual stream-flow. Accordingly, public water policy has been increasingly subject to challenge in the modern era, and these challenges promise to become even more stringent in the future.
