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subject to minimum flow levels; and 4) with proper compensation, preparing and executing contracts and subordinating diversions associated with approved and perfected rights. Although current Utah water law may not fully provide for all aspects of instream flow protection, Utah does believe they can provide an adequate level of protection. After examining the available flow protection approaches, it appears the most common strategy will be to condition the approval of presently filed and new applications, making them subject to predetermined streamflow levels. To accomplish this, the State Engineer would add a conditi~,n of approval to water right applications iwithin the area) filed after the policy is adopted. The condition would state that whenever the flow of the Green River (or other stream) drops below the predetermined streamflow level, then diversions associated with water rights approved after such condition was imposed would be prohibited. Based on past legal challenges to the State's authority to impose conditions associated with new approvals, it would appear that this is within the authority of the State Engineer. This approach will not specifically recognize an instream flow right; however, it will protect the flows from being diverted and used by subsequently approved water rights. This strategy of conditioning the approval of presently filed and new applications also could be combined with the others listed above and with appropriately contracted reservoir reoperations. . Implementing this approach will require that the State Engineer conduct public hearings to present the proposed streamflow levels to the public and water users. At the hearing, comments would be taken about the proposal and time would be allowed to submit written comments. After reviewing the information presented and any additional investigation deemed necessary, the State Engineer then would determine if such flow protection is in the public interest. If so, a policy would be developed requiring presently filed and new applications to be approved subject to accepted flow recommendations (currently summer and fall flows in the Green River). As additional flow recommendations are finalized and accepted (e.g. winter and spring flows in the Green River), the policy would be applied to address these flows. 2.2 II. RESTORE HABITAT Important elements of habitat protection include restoring and managing in-channel habitat and historically flooded bottomland areas, restoring passage to historically- occupied river reaches, enhancing water temperatures, and reducing or eliminating the impacts of contaminants. Historically, upper Colorado River basin floodplains were frequently inundated by spring runoff, but today much of the river is channelized by levees, dikes, rip-rap, and tamarisk. Fish access to these flooded bottomlands has been further reduced by decreased peak spring flows due to upstream impoundments. Numerous studies have suggested the importance of seasonal flooding to river productivity, 7