Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Interbasin Water Transfers: An Economic Panacea Or A Political Ploy?, K. William Easter, Nir Becker

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

ABSTRACT-New concern about the open access nature of the Great Lakes was sparked by the 1982 Sporhase Supreme Court Decision which limited states' power to prevent interbasin water transfers and was intensified by the 1988 drought in the Midwest. In response to the court decision, the Great Lakes Charter was adopted which established a set of management rules for new interbasin water transfers and other consumptive water uses. However, not all Great Lakes states have implemented the Charter provisions and, even if they did, it is not clear that the Charter objectives could be reached. The big losers from a …