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<br />Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin <br /> <br />Azotea) that are used to divert water from the San Juan Basin, west of the <br />Continental Divide, to the Upper Rio Grande Basin (east of the Continental <br />Divide). In the 1950s, the BuRec built the low-flow conveyance channel <br />(LFCC), a 75-mile structure extending upstream from Elephant Butte <br />Reservoir intended to reduce seepage and evaporation "losses". We describe <br />these facilities in greater detail in appendix A. <br /> <br />., <br />., <br /> <br />C. Laws and Institutions Governing the Basin's Water and Related <br />Resources <br /> <br />~ <br />.~ <br /> <br />t <br /> <br />t~ <br /> <br />The legal and institutional structure governing the resources of the Upper <br />Rio Grande Basin exhibits many characteristics found elsewhere in the West, <br />but it also has some important, unique features. In the following discussion <br />we highlight some of the most salient features of this structure, focusing on <br />the Rio Grande Compact and other elements providing the greatest insight <br />into the competition for the Basin's scarce resources. The discussion is not <br />intended as a comprehensive discourse on the laws and institutions <br />governing the Basin. Recognizing brevity's benefits for both writer and <br />reader, we necessarily make generalizations and focus our attention. The <br />result unavoidably excludes countless elements of the Basin's laws and <br />institutions, many of which are keenly important to the resource users, <br />managers, and attorneys who work with them daily. <br /> <br />\ <br />~ <br />,. <br /> <br />r:! <br />~.: <br /> <br />i.-', <br /> <br />i-:, <br />i <br /> <br />We focus on the laws and institutions governing the movement of water. <br />Perhaps their most essential feature is this: in the whole, they are so <br />tangled, so cloaked in technical and legal jargon, that they have become a <br />"Gordian knot ( surrounded by an aura of unapproachability" (Bates et al. <br />1993). They reflect the influence of aboriginal rules and custom, Spanish <br />and Mexican laws antedating the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, <br />international treaties, an interstate compact, the federal government's trust <br />responsibilities for Indian tribes and its public-interest trust responsibilities <br />as stewards of the nation's resources, and the unique laws and institutions of <br />three states. The prior-appropriation doctrine underlies-or at least <br />influences-most ofthe laws and institutions applying to water movement, <br />but it does not apply uniformly to all resources or in all areas. Each state <br />has its own laws and institutions. <br /> <br />"- <br />'" <br />1":+ <br />..t~ <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />..>; <br />'. <br /> <br />;1-~ <br />,'>: <br />;:~ <br /> <br />;.,;: <br /> <br />:~'~ <br /> <br />, <br />". <br /> <br />To explore the central features of the Basin's water laws and institutions, we <br />first describe the laws and institutions of the three states separately. <br /> <br />I _~ <br /> <br />"~ <br />~ <br />~ <br /> <br />12 <br /> <br />1;; 08G() <br />" '..' I., v'- <br /> <br />I <br />1.:-" <br />