The research project has attempted to penetrate some of the mystery surrounding the question of how water resource decisions are made in a typical metropolitan area in the Northeast. The project was initially undertaken within the framework of three generalizations derived from political and administrative sciences, namely, (1) that informal relationships significantly affect decisions (2) that in a democracy, those affected by decisions of government often have much to do with types of decisions made, and (3) that metropolitan areas, while truly metropolitan in terms of their social and economic interdependence, are nonetheless largely unable to realize their full social and economic potential because of the fragmentation of governmental units within their territorial scope. Research findings have generally supported the first and the third of these generalizations.