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<br />l"i J i:i ;) Z i~ <br /> <br />CHANGES IN WATER ALLOCATION AND QUALITY <br /> <br />Water use in the Upper Missouri River Basin is increasing and <br />may be expected to continue to increase, perhaps at an even more rapid <br />rate, in the near future. Increased water consumption will result, most <br />importantly, from urban growth, but energy conversion and other industrial <br />uses may also cause increases. Water use for irrigation mayor may not <br />increase; available projections differ in this respect (U. S. Department <br />of the Interior, 1975).12 What are the potential sources for satisfying <br />these projected increases in water demands? <br /> <br />Unappropriated Surface Water <br /> <br />At the 1970 level of development, average annual streamflow in <br />the Upper Missouri Basin amounted to about 26 million acre feet. Only <br />about a third of this natural streamflow is presently consumed. This <br />statistic suggests that there is plenty of unused water available to sup- <br />port new developments of all kinds, and when considered in comparison to <br />the situation of some other Western river basins, this is true. Water <br />availability is greater in the Upper Missouri than in the Upper Arkansas- <br />White-Red, the Western Gulf, the Upper Rio Grande-Pecos, the Colorado, <br />the Great Basin, or the South Pacific River Basins (Wollman and Bonem, <br />1971).13 <br /> <br />Gross water availability is a misleading statistic, however, for <br />water availability may not coincide in location or season with water demand. <br />It does not reveal that the climate of the Upper Missouri Basin is char- <br />acterized by wide variability in annual precipitation so that in abnormally <br />dry years a far lesser quantity of water is available, It does not reveal <br />that a minimal level of undepleted streamflow must be reserved to support <br />non-consumptive uses, including but not limited to the maintenance of fish <br />and wildlife resources. Finally, it does not reveal that Western water law, <br />based upon the doctrine of prior appropriation, places the burden of coping <br /> <br />21 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />.' <br /> <br />~. I <br /> <br />.' .." ....... <br /> <br />_ :.: ..::.,.,'".,..;:..~:..,:.;:,.. J. .. <br />. ~:.-..:}...:. ::. . <br />;"::": ";.'>-:-':..:!.-:'.::=::': <br />'.'c:':.;...\:~~:.:.:.7:."::: .::. "." .:'..... <br /> <br />.~ -'.: . . <br />"\; -"'.:~ "':''':'=:/::'- .~. <br />~-. . ?"~"\';';~;:~:::~:~:':,~..-~~:~.;>t <br />