INTERBASIN TRANSFERS OF WATER: PROBLEMS AND POLITICS.

The demand for water is increasing. Conservation is having an effect today in slowing the growth of demand curves. But that is only temporary because these measures serve to postpone decision making with respect to large water projects involving interbasin transfers. In 1974, Engineering News-Record (ENR) observed that, although someone else's water is invariably an attractive source, programs involving inter-regional water transfers would phase out. Based on the last ten years of experience, ENR may have been right, at least for the U. S. If someone is contemplating a large-scale interbasin transfer of water, then a real political struggle is in the making. The Great Lakes Governors have sounded their warning. The California voters have given their opinion. Water resource planners will earn their pay many times over when they attempt to resolve water problems by submitting to the temptation of interbasin water transfers.