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Minimum Instream Flow for South Carolina Rivers and Streams

, Regional Cultures of Conservation

January 20th, 2009

Although the South Carolina General Assembly failed to establish minimum flow standards in SC rivers and streams during 2008 a Senate bill to establish such flow regimes was re-introduced January 15, 2009 for the 2009 legislative session. Because the Center for Humans and Nature is viewed as neutral by the NGO community, industry and the legislature, the Center established an independent panel of academic experts to assess various flow models and provide evaluation of these models. The panel of 21 experts from six South Carolina universities provided data from 30 USGS stream gages in the state in early November and CHN hired a GIS expert to assemble the data. The independent panel met on December 3, 2008, to discuss the models and recommend procedures to the legislature for consideration during committee deliberations. The Panel’s report was completed in January 2009 and submitted to the General Assembly.

The independent panel recognized that water is a highly variable resource that fluctuates through time and varies across space. Water resources are susceptible to change as a result of the adjustments to land cover resulting from land management, urbanization, and population growth. The group concluded the rule that is ultimately adopted should be able to account for seasonal (within years) and annual (from one year to another) variability as well as geographic variation in river and stream behavior, be simple and easily understood and used, and that it be scientifically valid. The group also concluded that the economic and environmental needs of the state are not well served by a minimum flow rule that is a single number or one that relies solely on annual data. An effective rule is likely to be one defined by a formula that produces minimum flow requirements that vary seasonally and geographically. The group recognizes that a key component of any successful rule is the selection of a reference time period, because climate conditions vary across different multi-year time periods

The full text of the report “Minimum Flow Rules for South Carolina Rivers” may be found at http://www.cas.sc.edu/gis/HAN/ under “Final Report.” CHN and the independent academic panel will continue to work together through the 2009 legislative session.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 3:49 pm and is filed under South Carolina, law, public policy, rivers, water. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.