7882

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7882
• Author: Natural Resources Law Center.
• Title: Instream Flow Protection in the Western United States
• USFW Year: 1988.
• USFW - Doc Type: A Pratical Syposium, March 31-April 1, 1988.
• Copyright Material: NO

the West, water was taken from once-thriving streams to satisfy
the needs of crops, people, and their new economies.
This attitude and need for water diversions was reflected in
the laws that developed in local courts and legislatures. The
first person to take water from a stream and utilize it acquired
a vested right to continued use of the water. Unlike the
easterner who was constrained by riparian water law, a western
water user generally could dry up the stream even if people who
lived along its banks later wanted to use a bit of water for
their homes and livestock. "First in time, first in right" rang
through western courtrooms, and this Doctrine of Prior
Appropriation [1] accelerated the emptying of rivers and streams
of the West: No water right was created unless the flow was
diverted from its natural bed--and the law rewarded the quickest
to act.
A doctrine of prior appropriation was consistent with a young
nation's desire to settle the West and encourage the exploitation
of its vast resource base. It failed, however, to take into
account the important functions that free-flowing waters serve
in this arid region. As the decades passed and additional
diversions occurred, people began fighting to maintain the
values--both economic and intangible--that instream flows bring
to the West. state legislators considered various proposals to
protect important rivers and streams. Tribal governments
asserted their rights to instream flows needed to support
fisheries and religious practices. Private groups and
individuals sought to wrest from prior appropriators the waters

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