Instream Flow Study of the Salmon River Watershed, Southeastern Connecticut

Emily Levin

Emily Levin evaluated whether suburban development in five towns in the Salmon River Watershed poses a threat to natural flow patterns.  The study was carried out in partnership The Nature Conservancy’s Lower Connecticut River Program.  By combining information from GIS land use maps and the water resource requirements of current and proposed development, she was able to offer an analysis of what impacts increasing suburban development will have on the flow regime of a relatively healthy river. 

The problem is not as simple as it appears. It is not an issue of an absolute water shortage, rather a mismatch between seasonal water availability and consumptive use. Demands are greatest precisely when flows are naturally lowest. In this context, the main threats to stream flow in the Salmon River watershed are golf course irrigation and sewer expansion.

Town managers should recognize that both activities increase consumptive water use and carefully consider impacts to river flows before approving new diversions. Sewage expansion projects should weigh the benefits of water quality from centralized wastewater treatments with the water quantity impacts of wastewater exportation from the watershed.



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