
The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Media Contact: Laurie Mellas, 277-5915
Aug. 31, 2006
UNM Utton Center Develops Model Water Compact
Adaptable document available as free download
During the past half-century, American states have entered into some 26 interstate water allocation compacts, primarily in the western part of the country. As water conflicts increased, so did the realization among experts that most existing compacts were inadequate.
The University of New Mexico Utton Transboundary Resources Center at the School of Law has developed a model water compact to help parties avoid costly litigation. The project was funded in 2000 with congressional funding obtained by United States Sen. Pete Domenici.
The document is now available for use as a traditional interstate compact, with states as signatory parties, or as a federal/interstate compact with the United States as a signatory party. The latter approach has been used in the compacts most recently approved by Congress.
“The beauty of the new model compact is that it can be adapted to different situations in the various river basins around the country,” said Utton Center Director Marilyn O'Leary.
For more than a year, O'Leary and a team of staff analyzed existing compacts to identify and evaluate strengths and weaknesses in both theory and practice. The next step was to catalog the language in existing compacts as well as congressional consent legislation by topic to identify how critical issues were addressed historically.
O'Leary also assembled a 24-member advisory committee representing a range of professional expertise and stakeholder interests in interstate water issues. Last March, the committee met in Santa Fe for a three-day workshop. Members evaluated and supplemented the principal issues identified by the project study and offered further recommendations.
“This model river compact addresses the relevant and integrated scientific, economic, legal, and cultural factors that must be thoughtfully and thoroughly examined by any practicing water resource administrator,” said Ken Knox, chief deputy state engineer for the State of Colorado.
“The model compact properly takes into account the sovereign status of Indian tribes and their substantial water rights when they are present in a basin,” adds John Echohawk, director of the Native American Rights Fund.
Copies of the model compact can be downloaded from the UNM Utton Center Web site, http://uttoncenter.unm.edu/.
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