Interstate Water Sharing Agreements: What Have We Learned?

2009 (Presenter Lynne Lewis, Associate Professor of Economics at Bates College in Maine) - In this talk Lewis will discuss the history and economics of water sharing in the Southwestern United States, water sharing agreements including interstate compacts and lessons learned from the successes and failures of those agreements. Highlighted will be disagreements over water sharing and resolutions of those disagreements as well as the flexibility of interstate compact allocation mechanisms to adjust when river characteristics change (e.g. climate, population, etc.). What lessons can be applied elsewhere such as during interstate water negotiations between Florida, Alabama and Georgia? What have we learned about flexibility in times of uncertain streamflow or changing climate? This lecture was recorded at "Water Scarcity and Conflict," the Elizabeth Babbott Conant Interdisciplinary Conference on the Environment at Connecticut College on April 3 and 4, 2009. https://www.conncoll.edu/academics/majors-departments-programs/majors-and-minors/goodwin-niering-center-for-the-environment/conferences/water-scarcity--conflict/