As water shortages grip California and the seven state Colorado River basin, many users feel no pain, while some face a complete curtailment. That's because the water management system is not designed to be either efficient or equitable but consistent and predictable. And it is.

As is typical in issues that race from obscurity to the front page, much of the blame that has been assigned for this water shortage misses the mark, as people expound on issues they don't truly understand. Everything from alfalfa exported to Chinese cows, fountains shooting into the Las Vegas sky and explosive population growth throughout the arid southwest has been faulted for the shortage. But it is policies that discourage cooperation and conservation that do much of the damage. One example is the "first come, first served" system – based on the prior appropriation doctrine.

The prior appropriation doctrine is the legal system that determines how scarce supplies are allocated among cities, farms, industry, the environment and any other potential water users. In this "first come, first served" system, if your ancestors homesteaded the family farm in 1860, then you are have the legal right, every year in perpetuity, to take your entire accustomed water supply before your neighboring farmer, whose family arrived in 1862, get their first drop. And both users stand in line ahead of the city founded in 1871, the mine that opened in 1898, or the wetland that was not legally recognized at all in this 19th century era of water allocation.