The court found that allocating water to the minnow was indeed a beneficial use.

The river flow here is the principal factor in allocating water to the seven U.S. and two Mexican states in the Colorado River basin.

And it stands to lose about half that under a 1963 United States Supreme Court ruling that allocated more water from the Colorado River to Arizona.

But Federal contracts allocate water to irrigation districts, not individual farmers.

These institutions-in turn-affect third-level decisions of how to allocate water (e.g., among crops or within an urban sector).

Riparian water rights (or simply riparian rights) is a system for allocating water among those who possess land about its source.

Most states have sought to limit federal control over water distribution, preferring instead to allocate water under the discredited doctrine of prior appropriation.

Georgia, Alabama, and Florida have been wrangling over how to allocate water from the Chattahoochee watershed for years as metro Atlanta's population has doubled since 1980.

"When you allocate water, you apportion pain," said Representative Miller, vice chairman of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs.

Trading also re-allocates risk, whereas the prior appropriation system inefficiently and unequally allocates water and risk among similar users.