2. INSTREAM FLOW: AN OVERVIEW 



Although water is clearly one of this country's most abundant and 

 versatile National resources, the "adequacy of our water resources has emerged 

 as [one of] the nation's principal resource concerns in the 1980' s" (Frederick 

 1982:216). Every geographic region in the United States faces serious water 

 problems, which fall roughly into two major categories: either there is too 

 much demand for too little water, or the quality is low. Instream flow needs 

 are related to both. 



Historically, the value of maintaining flow in streams for instream uses 

 has been ignored in favor of development uses. This is especially true in the 

 West, where diversionary and beneficial use is often a prerequisite for obtain- 

 ing legal rights to the water. In the last decade, however, the environmental 

 movement and other factors led to the creation of a new kind of water use: 

 the use of a free-flowing stream for such purposes as recreation, water quality 

 maintenance, aesthetics, and the preservation of aquatic and terrestrial 

 wildlife (Doerksen and Lamb 1974; Tarlock 1978; Weatherford 1982). 



The debate over instream flows centers on the crucial question: How much 

 water, in what condition, and for what uses, should be left in a particular 

 river or stream? Thus, instream flow allocation is integrally tied to the 

 issues of quantity and quality, as well as the legal and institutional frame- 

 works for managing and regulating each. As the demand for energy, irrigation, 

 and domestic and industrial consumption has increased, more and more streams 

 have been impounded or depleted to provide water for these interests. These 

 long-standing water uses have come into direct conflict with the newly 

 recognized instream values (Doerksen and Lamb 1979; Lamb and Meshorer 1983). 



Competition over what is viewed as an increasingly scarce resource, 

 especially in the West, is often fierce (Frederick 1982; Weatherford 1982). 

 Instream users not only have to compete among themselves for water to cover a 

 diverse set of activities (including fish and terrestrial wildlife protection, 

 recreation, flood control, hydroelectric power generation, navigation and 

 transportation purposes, and waste treatment and assimilation), but with 

 offstream users as well. Off stream users also compete with instream users and 

 each other to advance a variety of interests, many of which are incompatible. 

 These include water for agriculture and irrigation, livestock, manufacturing, 

 industry, mining, steam-generated electricity, and a host of commercial and 

 domestic activities (Frederick 1982). 



Instream flow questions have no single answer that is suitable in all 

 conflicts. It is not simply a matter of instream flow versus diversionary 

 uses. Determination of instream flow needs is associated with a number of 

 water issues, including (but certainly not limited to): Section 404 dredge 



