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!") <br />j _ <br />EARLY INSTREAM FLOW STUDIES <br />1. INTRODUCTION <br />In 1975 the Instream Flow situation in the water administration arena was <br />frustrating and confusing at best. While the water planning community was <br />beginning to recognize that i nstream flow needs were a legitimate part of the <br />water administration picture, investigation of instream flow requirements was <br />a part-time job practiced by an uncoordinated group of biologists using a <br />variety of methods. <br />The first documented instream flow study was conducted in Colorado on the <br />Colorado River below the Granby dam site in the late 1940's by Ralph Schmidt <br />of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While this unpublished study was <br />largely ignored by the construction agency, it employed concepts which are <br />still being applied today. Figure I illustrates some of the milestone studies <br />that followed over the next three decades. <br />Significant events during this period were also occurring in the water <br />planning community (Figure 2).. The Water Resources Planning Act of 1961 <br />established the Water Resources Council and authorized regional river basin <br />emmissions. This began an era of comprehensive, coordinated planning which <br />provided a forum for elevating instream values to the status of legitimate <br />functional uses of the nations waters.