Hydrological and Biological
Considerations for Instream
Flow Restoration
Stan Isley
Due Diligence and Water Transfers
CBWTP – QLE Workshop
April 6, 2004, Walla Walla, WA
Opening Comments
• Restoring our stream systems – the 5 F’s:
flows, fish, floodplains, form, & function
• Proving People and Fish can Co-exist
• You’re doing the good work!
• Stream Restoration Family
• Support Your “Family”
Prioritization
• Most projects are good & have benefits
• Can’t fund them all
• Must prioritize to get “Biggest Bang for the
Buck”
• But: Acquisitions are opportunity driven
• Don’t lose an opportunity to acquire
Ensure Successes and Good
Relations with Ag
• Ag holds most of the water used offstream in the Columbia Basin
• Must work to ensure good relationship
with ag and ensure projects are win-win
Normative Flows
• Normative Flows are river flows that provide
enough habitat to sustain or expand
populations of anadromous fisheries in all life
history stages (Independent Scientific Group,
1999)
• Normative Flows emulate the historic discharge
regime or flow pattern of the stream
• Normative Flows are NOT circa 1800 flows
Stream Restoration
• Restore the function & the form will
restore itself
• Rewater our streams
• Remove Dikes & levees where possible
• Restore floodplain access and function
• Remove Fish Passage Barriers
Stan’s Pronouncement
• Without floods, we can’t have salmon!
• Let our streams flood
Huffaker & Whittlesey
• Consumptive use and return flow portions of
water rights defined
• Consumptive use: lost to atmosphere by
evapotranspiration or tied up in plant tissue
• Return flow: everything else that’s diverted
• Ag conservation projects increase instream flows
only in the reach of stream from the historic
diversion point to the last return flow point
Huffaker & Whittlesey’s
Pronouncement
• There are only 2 ways to reduce ag
consumptive water use in a basin:
• 1) Irrigate fewer acres, or
• 2) Switch to crops requiring less water to
grow (e.g., to wheat, from alfalfa)
Water Conservation/Water Use
Efficiency Projects
• May still merit funding by CBWTP when:
• Fish migration barriers are eliminated
• The reach of stream below the diversion is
critical habitat
• The benefiting reach is miles long
• An out-of-basin transfer quantity is reduced
• Note: It’s an important tool in our stream
restoration toolbox
Normative flow restoration
These factors, collectively applied, can restore
normative flows to many streams:
• Acquisition of instream flow trust water rights
• Water conservation and water use efficiency
improvements
• Floodplain restoration
• Normative flow management on regulated
rivers
Quantification of Beneficial &
Transferable Use
• No increase in consumptive use
• No detriment or injury to other
rights
• Must calculate consumptive use
portion of right with WIG or
equivalent method
Washington Irrigation Guide
• The WIG was compiled by NRCS and the
Washington State Cooperative Extension Service
• Estimates average-year crop irrigation water
requirements (CIR) for 60 crops at 90 climatic
stations in Washington State, defined monthly and
annually
• CIR = consumptive use portion of water right
• Exceedingly valuable tool for defining the Qi of
the instream flow water right that will be created
by retiring an off-stream use
Washington Water Acquisition
Program – Finding Ways to Restore
Streams
• March 2003, Publication No. 03-11-005
• Available on WA Dept. of Ecology website
at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/0311005
• Or from Ecology Publication Distribution
Center, PO Box 47600, Olympia, WA
98504-7600, E-mail: ecypub@ecy.wa.gov,
Phone: (360) 407-7472
Washington Water Acquisition
Program – Finding Ways to Restore
Streams
• Authored by Ecology and WDFW water
acquisition and stream flow restoration staff
• Great reference. Get one for your bookshelf
• Concise listing of hydrological, biological,
and other considerations for instream flow
restoration for salmon and stream
restoration
CBWTP Website
• 1) Criteria for Evaluating Proposals to
Secure Tributary Water
• 2) Water Transactions Checklist for Specific
Water Transactions to Increase Tributary
Flows
• Updated Feb 2004
• Good list of the important questions to ask
when contemplating acquisitions
Perry Harvester’s Paper
• Perry put together a good summary of
biological and hydrological considerations
for instream flow acquisitions – 15 pages
• Copy to NFWF for distribution to QLE’s
Water Marketing & Water Banking
• The future of water allocation is water
marketing – Stan Isley, 2004
• Do what you can to encourage the
development of water markets and water
banks
• Water markets/water banks will help us
restore streams by connecting us with
willing sellers
Monitoring & Enforcement
• We must be able to measure and monitor
our acquired instream flow water
• We must be able to protect our acquired
instream flow water against diversion and
use by unauthorized water users
• This may require enforcement by a stream
patrolperson
Hydrological Considerations #1
• Buy only real “wet” water, not paper water rights
• Acquire senior water rights with full-season or full-year
availability
• Only retired consumptive use can create an instream
flow water right all the way “to the Pacific Ocean”
• Permanent acquisitions are preferred over leases
• Long-term leases are preferred over short-term, but
are still non-permanent
• Partial-Year & Dry-year/drought-year leases are
important enhancement measures for certain streams
• Acquire water rights with a high consumptive use
component to maximize the instream flow enhancement
Hydrological Considerations #2
• Banking of acquired water in reservoirs
allows flow shaping for maximum fish
benefit
• Surface water rights better than GW rights
• Gifts or donations of water may qualify as
Federal Income Tax deductions for donor
Hydrological Considerations #3
• Water conservation and water use efficiency improvements
normally do not reduce consumptive use, they just reduce
conveyance and application losses
• Water conservation and water use efficiency improvements
therefore only benefit specific stream reaches (from diversion point
to last return flow point)
• Conservation Projects can remove fish passage barriers, improve
WQ, rewater dewatered stream reaches, improve critical habitat
• Hard to negotiate real wet water diversion reductions/instream
flow increases on large irrigation districts – annual water use
variation
• Piped gravity-flow irrigation systems more fish-friendly than
pumped systems? – Smolts & turbines
Hydrological Considerations #4
• Conserved water resulting from ag efficiency
improvements can not be transferred to a new
consumptive use, should always be assigned to
instream flow use
• Capture and consumptive reuse of ag return
flow water may reduce instream flows in the
stream below the return flow point
• Acquiring out-of-basin transferred water rights
may increase instream flows by 100% of the
right, possibly “all the way to the Ocean”
Hydrological Considerations #5
• Acquired water rights:
• 100% go to instream flow at the historic diversion point
• The retired consumptive-use portion goes to instream
flow from the last return flow point all the way to the
Ocean
• Consumptive use is determined by month, not averaged
over the year. The instream flow right Qi will vary by
month as a result (Bell Curve)
• Note: More flow is not always needed in ALL months in
rivers carrying reservoir releases (think normative!)
Biological Considerations #1
• ESA-listed salmonids present in the stream?
Highest priority
• Depressed stocks or reduced diversity of species
of fish in the stream?
• Stream is a migration corridor or spawning or
rearing habitat for resident or anadromous
salmonids
• Stream has fish migration barrier that can be
eliminated
Biological Considerations #2
• Stream has inadequate flows, caused by
diversions, limiting fish recovery
• Stream has impaired WQ caused by lack of flow
• Small streams show the best cost/benefit ratio for
acquisitions, have best chance for immediate fish
benefit
• Larger streams with several ESA-species rank
high for flow improvement
Biological Considerations #3
• Is the likelihood of long-term flow and fish
recovery good?
• Work with fisheries agencies & Indian Tribes to
identify & prioritize streams to target (e.g.,
Limiting Factors Analysis)
• Determine current habitat conditions & needs
• Determine the time period when flows are
inadequate
Biological Considerations #4
• The acquisition must help achieve instream
flow requirements for fish in critical fish
habitat stream reaches
• It may also benefit WQ, stream side
channels, restoration of riparian vegetation,
and floodplain function
Biological Considerations # 5
• Stan says:
• Don‘t write off the larger streams. The
long-term view says each acquisition for
instream flow use represents incremental
progress toward achieving normative flows
in our streams
Biological Considerations #6
• Know your fish life histories. Tailor your
water acquisitions to provide the most
benefit to your target fish.
• Pulse flows or flushing flows for smolt
outmigration
• Base flows for over-summering Spring
Chinook, Coho, Steelhead fry
Teanaway River Example
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From 1980 through 1999, an average of 1 Spring Chinook salmon redd was counted
annually in the entire Teanaway basin. In many of those years, no redds were
counted
Purchase and lease of water rights for instream flow use, by both Trendwest and
Reclamation, occurred in the late 1990’s
BPA/NPCC/Reclamation/and Yakama Nation provided funding for 3 new ag
irrigation systems, eliminating diversion berms and improving flows in specific
stream reaches, completed in 2000
The above improvements greatly improve fish passage through the lower Teanaway
River
21 spring Chinook salmon redds were counted in 2000, 21 counted in 2001
BPA/NPCC/Yakama Nation supplementation facility-reared native Spring Chinook
salmon were released at the Jack Creek acclimation pond on the North Fork
Teanaway River in 2000
110 spring Chinook salmon redds were counted in 2002 in the Teanaway Basin
By using all the tools in the toolbox, we have achieved this water conservation success
story in the Teanaway River Basin. Let’s do this in other river basins too.
Closing Thought
• We need to develop water markets!
• We need brokers!
• Thanks everyone.