Water for the Environment

Fish and wildlife need water. It’s a simple truth, but ensuring that fish (including shellfish) and wildlife, and the habitats they depend on, have sufficient fresh water in the face of increasing—and shifting—human demand for water is a complex challenge. In Texas, as in many other western states that rely primarily on the prior appropriation doctrine (see Chapter 3), ensuring water for the environment presents difficult legal questions. These questions have been front and center in Texas water law for the last decade, paralleled by new initiatives in the scientific arena to better define freshwater flow needs for various instream and estuarine habitats. ¹ (See Chapter 6 for an in-depth discussion of the importance of freshwater flows for Texas estuaries.) As noted by the 2004 report of a select group of scientists charged with examining environmental flow issues, “The question is not whether environmental flows are important and should be protected, but rather, how, when and where, and in what quantities should flows be reserved for environmental purposes in the state’s rivers and streams and its bays and estuaries.” ²