The waters of the Colorado River are divided among seven states according to a complex "Law of the River" drawn from interstate compacts, international treaties, statutes, and regula tions. The Law of the River creates certain priorities among the states and the Republic of Mexico, and in the event of a severe sus tained drought, the Law of the River dictates the distribution of water and operation of the elaborate reservoir system. Earlier work indicated that there is remarkable resilience in the system for established uses of water in the Lower Basin of the Colorado River. This work shows, based on an application of the Law of the River using computer modeling of operations of facilities on the Colorado River, that there may be serious environmental consequences and related legal restraints on how the water is used in times of short age and that the existing legal and institutional framework govern ing the Colorado River does not adequately address all the issues that would be raised in a severe sustained drought. Several possi ble legal options for dealing with drought in the context of the Law of the River are identified. (KEY TERMS: social and political; water law; water policy/regulation/decisionmaking; water resources planning; watershed manage ment.)

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* Special acknowledgement is given to Robert Wigington and Bruce Driver for their thorough review and many useful suggestions for an earlier draft of this article. 1 See generally ROBERT G. DUNBAR, FORGING NEW RIGHTS IN WESTERN WATERS (1983).

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