CORPS OF ENGINEERS POLICIES ON FRESHWATER INFLOW 



Walter B. Gallaher 

 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Dallas, Texas 



INTRODUCTION 



It is indeed a privilege to par- 

 ticipate in today's panel session. I 

 am substituting for Brigadier General 

 Hugh Robinson, our Division Engineer, 

 Southwestern Division. General 

 Robinson asked that I express his 

 sincere thanks to the USFWS for its 

 ivitation and sends his sincere re- 

 grets for being unable to participate 

 in today's session. General Robinson 

 did express his keen interest in this 

 most important symposium and believes 

 that the results and conclusions 

 reached at this 3-day symposium will 

 be most important in guiding our fu- 

 ture efforts in conserving the valu- 

 able fishery and shellfish resources 

 of our Nation's estuaries. 



CoKI'S 



CAPABILITIES AND CONSTRAINTS 



The Corps of Engineers had plan- 

 ned, constructed, and is presently 

 operating more than 400 reservoirs 

 across the United States. However, 

 the water is owned, and water rights 

 are controlled by individual states, 

 usually a state water resources board 

 within the state where the project is 

 operated. Therefore, with the water 

 use controlled by others, release of 

 waters downstream or use for pur- 

 poses other than authorized purposes 

 are not usually possible without 

 the state's agreement. During the 

 planning process, various water-use 



needs, including mitigation require- 

 ments, are considered and those fea- 

 sible uses provided for in the proj- 

 ect plans. Even reservoir releases 

 for mitigation need state concur- 

 rence to ensure the water is not di- 

 verted before it serves the mitiga- 

 tion purpose. 



The degree of control over wa- 

 ter uses and the availability of so 

 called "surplus water" vary with the 

 states. Generally in the western 

 states, particularly in the semiarid 

 areas, water uses and availability 

 are much more closely regulated than 

 in the eastern states where more wa- 

 ter is usually available. In states 

 such as New Mexico and Texas, where 

 all the available water has been ap- 

 propriated, the states exercise full 

 control over water use. In some 

 areas, the Corps has some degree of 

 flexibility in operation of proj- 

 ects and releases of flood waters . 

 In such cases, it is possible to 

 work our water-level management plans 

 for reservoirs and downstream re- 

 leases for the benefit of fish and 

 wildlife, and we have implemented 

 these plans at many projects. 



Several existing authorities 

 provide the Corps with direction to 

 study and develop solutions to in- 

 stream flow problems: 



a. Specific project or basin 

 studies to solve a particular pro- 

 blem. 



104 



