The Minimum Stream Flow Restoration Act:

• Ensures that the amount of water necessary to preserve habitat is kept in our streams and rivers.
• Corrects the exempt well oversight, preventing people from sucking a river dry through underground wells. Right now, while your neighbor cannot take water directly out of the river, he can pump it out of the water table next to the river – often having the same effect on the rivers flow.
• Allows local and regional conservation groups to purchase water rights and donate to a state trust with the assurance that the water will stay in the stream.
• Establishes a reasonable timeline for listing and restoration of minimum stream flows.
• Immediately protects those streams which are most overburdened.

Why This Bill Is Needed Now:

• Water is a finite resource, if water diversions continue to damage our rivers we will still reach their limits, however we will first lose the many valuable benefits associated with healthy rivers.
• The EPA, in a 1998 report on water quality, stated that unnatural flow is the second greatest threat to water quality after agricultural pollution.
• According to American Rivers, “Long-term needs of the river and long-term demands of humans are best served by a continual supply of healthy, clean water.”
• Historically, water diversions were not conditioned with minimum stream flows, so water rights granted before a minimum stream flow substantially dewater some streams.

Minimum Stream Flows Protect Aquatic Ecosystems.

• Wetland plant life along our rivers acts as a kidney in nature – absorbing harmful chemicals before they enter a river. Should they die from lack of water, the cost of municipal water treatment increases.
• Flows affect the health of aquatic systems and resources. Flowing water transports food and young fish. Fish feed on insects drifting in the current. Small mammals eat the fish. If water dries up, animals die all the way up along the food chain.
• Once a river is completely dried out, it takes years for the ecosystem to return to normal.
• Flows in a stream are a “zero sum game.” There is only a finite amount of water available at any given moment. If it is being used for one thing, it generally cannot be used for another.

Minimum Stream Flows Preserve Rivers for Those Who Boat, Fish and Hunt.

• Thousands of people each year enjoy our rivers for canoeing and boating – if a minimum stream flow is not protected this popular form of recreation is threatened.
• Many people rely on fishing for their livelihood, directly or through tourism. For example, according to a University of Maine study, inland fishing in Maine had an economic value of almost 300 million dollars in 1996. Inland anglers were also responsible for over five thousand full and part-time jobs in that state.
• When a river reaches critically low levels or dries out completely, many or all the fish die. After this happens, it takes years for a popular fishing hole to return to normal.
• Many hunters – especially duck hunters – often find game in the wetlands near rivers. When these rivers dry up, the wetlands dry up and animals – including game – go to different areas, if they survive.

Maintaining Minimum Stream Flows Protects Rural Communities, Farmers, and Ranchers.

Adequate, clean water supplies are critical for a good quality of life, tourism, and other important sources of jobs. Aquatic species play a critical role in maintaining water quality, but only if they have enough water to survive.