Colorado River Delta Institutions
Courtesy: MJ Cohen and C Henges-Jeck, 2001,
Missing Water: The Uses and Flows of Water in the Colorado River Delta Region, Oakland: Pacific Institute, pp. 5-7, used with permission

   Institutions have supplanted precipitation in determining the flows of the Colorado River, explaining the current state of the river's delta. Institutions determine the manner in which water is allocated, the uses to which it may be applied, and who may participate in allocative processes. Fradkin (1981:xviii) writes, "To me the [Colorado] river, in its present state, is primarily a product of the political process . . . rather than a natural phenomenon." Institutions can be described as the 'rules of the game,' the socially-devised constraints to people's interactions with the environment and with each other (Cortner et al. 1996).

   The flows of the Colorado River below Hoover Dam are controlled and regulated based on flood control requirements, downstream diversion orders, and demands for hydroelectric power (cf. Nathanson 1980). The degree of institutional control over the Colorado River can not be overstated: the 1983 flood has been the only instance since the construction of Hoover Dam in 1935 when discharge from the dam, and along the lower Colorado River, was not completely controlled by the Bureau of Reclamation (Holburt 1984). The concept of a major river whose flow can be turned on and off is difficult to comprehend, but it is the central fact of the lower Colorado River. Except in extremely rare instances of unusually high inflows to Lake Mead and limited storage availability (triggering U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Flood Control Release Guidelines), the flows in the lower Colorado River are released by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The Bureau of Reclamation determines release rates based on a complex algorithm to meet the downstream beneficial consumptive use orders for agricultural diversions and municipal and industrial diversions. This algorithm integrates agricultural diversion orders, required deliveries to Mexico, storage requirements, flood control, and hydroelectric power generation contracts. The determination of releases takes into consideration the priorities of water use as required by applicable federal law. Instream flows through the riparian corridor of Colorado River delta are almost entirely dependent on releases from upstream dams.

Read More...