Model Interstate Water Compact

Over the last two decades, there has been a significant increase in bitter struggles over the supervision of interstate water systems throughout the country. The resulting legal actions have been of increasing concern to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, chaired by New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici. In 2000, as a result of Senator Domenici's efforts, the University of New Mexico Law School received funding for the Utton Transboundary Resources Center to draft an interstate water compact to address these disputes.

Conferences conducted at the Center brought together lawyers and scientists from across the nation to discuss and offer insights into the complex water issues. The result is the Model Interstate Water Compact, which encourages states to assume oversight of trans-boundary resources, especially water, avoiding the inefficiency and expense of legal action. In addition to the authors' proposed model, there is a complete cross-referenced listing of existing interstate water compacts in the appendix.