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<br />~ <br /> <br />Maybe we would do well to concede that the business of <br />managing the Colorado River involves issues as sensitive <br />to the parties as the issues that characterize international <br />diplomacy. This means that success will only be possible <br />and only be lasting if we are free to discuss all the vari- <br />ous, related interests of the parties instead of dealing <br />with them piecemeal; and if we have the benefit of full, <br />reliable facts. Vve must accept that a long-range coopera- <br />tive solution is possible only if it is left open to continual <br />tinkering. So we have a need for a big table, we must <br />tackle a complex agenda, and we have to be flexible. <br /> <br />Perhaps, as MacDonnell and Driver suggest, the best <br />way to approach this problem is with a permanent <br />Colorado River basin institution charged with multi- <br />ple responsibilities and with reconciling multiple <br />interests, such as river management, recreation, power <br /> <br />, <br />I <br />. <br />I <br />I <br />l <br />r <br /> <br />generation, water releases, and getting and using <br />power revenues. As one who has championed a similar <br />idea in the past, I know hm'\-' controversial it is. But <br />this workshop could be a breakthrough in getting peo- <br />ple to talk with one another. \'\Tho knows, the last ses- <br />sion on Wednesday, when the .MacDonnell-Driver idea <br />is discussed, may see us all coalescing around the con- <br />cept of a new institution. And as Commissioner <br />Martinez arrives, he will be here just in time to sign a <br />new compact setting up a Colorado River Basin com- <br />mission. Maybe. <br /> <br />But whether or not we all can embrace a single idea, we <br />will deserve to declare success at the end of the work- <br />shop if we only have reached a new plateau of under- <br />standing that enables us to talk to one another about <br />the future of the river, creatively, respectfully. <br /> <br />15 <br />