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LJ,]) i'1 CHAPTER 4 RELATIONSHIP OF THIS STUDY TO OTHERS PoliCY issue studies like this one vividly demonstrate the interrelationShip between water policy issues. Water policy is complex. and no method of distinguishing issues can success- fully eliminate overlaps. The purpose of this chapter is to identify the most significant relationships between this study and the other policy issue studies being conducted as part of the state water planning and review process. As this report is being prepared the policy study activity, as originally designed. is approx- imately one-half completed, While reports have not been prepared on several of the studies. work is well underway on many. and thescope of those slucHes is becoming increasingly well-defined. As a result, it becomes easier with each study report to identify the relationships between that study and the others. Identifying those relationships is important in each case. Such identification promotes aware- ness of the fact that any particular water policy action will have greater impact upon overall water policy than just the resolution of the im- mediate issue at hand. The result of this aware- ness should not be 10 delay automatically what may otherwise appear to be a favorable action, although that may be appropriate in some cases. However. such awareness should at a minimum discourage actions that will prevent consider- ation of new information at a later date. Significant relationships can be identified between the subject of this report, groundwater property rights, and several of the other policy issue studies being conducted. The extent of that relationship, if any, is addressed in the material which follows. STUDY #1: INSTREAM FLOWS The report prepared for the Instream Flows Study was approved by the Commission In January and sent fOrNard to the Legislature and the Governor for their consideration. While that study dealt almost exclusively with surfacewater and this study deals almost exclusively with groundwater. relationships between the two studies do exist. Streams in the State of 1 ~c.; --~ - ~- - Nebraska which have fairly constant base flow are dependent upon the discharge of ground- water for the maintenance of that flow. That discharge could be reduced or even eliminated in some streams because of the development and use of groundwater supplies. The extent to which the alternatives addressed in this study would encourage or discourage such groundwater use could affect the realization of instream flow objectives in those streams. A more specific discussion of the effecls of the alternatives on groundwater use is discussed below under "Study:t3: Groundwater ReserVOir Manage- ment," 4.1