Examination of three fundamental dilemmas that underlie U.S. water policy in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century: 1) how to provide equitable access to the relatively small amount of fresh water for growing and often competing human uses; 2) how to ensure that water of adequate quality is available at places and times needed to support different types of uses; and 3) how to manage water upon which all life depends in ways that balance human and environmental needs.