Is there sufficient information for water resource management?
Relatively little is known about water resources in the Chehalis Basin, and proper resource management is going to require additional information about the basin. Missing information includes knowledge of which existing rights are actually being used and which are relinquished, what percentage of the water authorized by active rights is actually being withdrawn, how many of the approximately 8500 claims are valid, what the actual flows are in most Chehalis streams, whether actual and regulatory flows are adequate for fish and other instream uses, the extent to which exempt wells impair other water rights and climate variability. If there were plenty of water in the Chehalis Basin for everyone and every use (instream and out-of-stream) the absence of information about basin water resources and their use would matter little. However, this is not the case in every part of the basin. Some subbasins are closed to the issuance of new rights, and some agencies and citizens do not believe that
