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An Overview of the Basin's Resource-Management Problems ,<-, significant evolution of old ones. In particular, they believe that much of the frustration stems from the Byzantine maze of overlapping entities with overlapping responsibilities for managing the Basin's resources and seek the establishment of one or more forums for broad public review and involvement in resource-management policy and practice. Support for this view comes from several directions. Some supporters believe water resources must be managed at a broad regional level, much as transportation is. Others are consumptive water users who accept the inevitability of additional restrictions on these uses and want a better mechanism for holding the promoters of these restriction more accountable for the local consequences, such as when environmental regulations curtail irrigation and results in lower incomes for some farmers and disruption in some communities. Conversely, some of the advocates of such restrictions want a better mechanism for holding resource users accountable for the inadvertent consequences of their actions, such as when the diversion of water from the river causes general taxpayers to bear the costs of environmental damage. '.:-"; .;t: '__.J ~~~ i..::. ~ .... "':-, (..' :.::-" Others reach the opposite conclusion. They see the multiple, overlapping entities as representative of the multiple, overlapping interests in the Basin's water and related resources and believe there is no better substitute for the tugging and pulling-the competition-among them. While acknowledging the past weaknesses of existing institutions, they believe there is a growing recognition of the economic and environmental imperatives for change and an expanding willingness to work cooperatively to find solutions to pressing problems. ::~ " '..-, ~" Federal resource-management agencies and personnel are a lightning rod for much frustration and even anger. Animosity toward them is intense and widespread. It has multiple origins and takes many forms. Many feel betrayed-as when Indians see federal dollars used to develop water for newcomers to the Basin, environmental advocates see federal programs accelerate ecological change, or irrigators see federal agencies curtail water deliveries for environmental reasons-and want federal agents to do more to promote their interests. Others, confident they will have better success getting what they want through state and local political channels, want the federal agencies to give resource-management authority to their state and local counterparts and withdraw. Some just see federal agencies as overly bureaucratic or even incompetent. Not everyone sees the federal agencies in these ways, of course. Indeed, many representatives of interest groups 'I ;~' '_-J ! .Y c' S 2 9 '79 99