Untying the gordian knot: Negotiated strategies for protecting instream flows in Texas

Providing instream river flows is a daunting challenge for Texas. The specter of rivers running dry during drought is a reality in many areas of the state. Only recently has Texas statutorily recognized the importance of instream flows and taken measures to protect these flows. One consequence of this late action is that most of the water in Texas rivers has been allocated to other uses and very little water remains for instream flows. Ultimately, water will have to be reallocated for instream flow needs. Reallocating water will require the unprecedented stakeholder cooperation between water planners, developers, regulators, suppliers, users and environmental interests. After examining the legal, technical and institutional efficacy of several reallocation strategies, the article explores stakeholder satisfaction with current instream flow practices and outlines, through a preferences and feasibility analysis, those strategies favored by stakeholders. Findings indicate that stakeholders are primarily concerned with the temporal and spatial nature of instream needs, the need to quantify the amount of water needed for instream flows, the importance of equity and fairness in distributing the reallocation burden and the effect of agency recalcitrance in pursuing a number of strategies. The challenge for Texas is to develop negotiated strategies to protect instream flows where the benefits of cooperation exceed the rewards of rivalry.

Untying the gordian knot: Negotiated strategies for protecting instream flows in Texas Academic Article