Guidelines & Best Management Practices (BMP's)

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Provincial agencies, working in collaboration with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans have developed two guideline documents related to the evaluation of instream flow needs for fish as they relate to proposals to develop small hydroelectric projects.

A brief overview of the guidelines, their origins and utility is presented in the IFN Backgrounder (PDF 35KB) document.

The first guideline document (Assessment Methods PDF 2.63MB) details information requirements related to fish, fish habitat, water quality and hydrology. This document also provides the preferred methodology for collecting that information in British Columbian waters. 

The second guideline document (Instream Flow Thresholds Synopsis PDF 743KB) defines flow thresholds that can be used as part of a preliminary evaluation. The thresholds identify where the area of uncertainty is with respect to the effects of water extractions or diversions on aquatic values. The flow threshold can be used as a “coarse filter” to allow proponents to assess whether negative impacts to fish are likely to occur before undertaking more costly assessments.

In addition, three other technical background documents are available. These include the ‘Phase 1’ Initial Review PDF 678KB, the Instream Flow Thresholds Development PDF 1.07MB document and the Technical Appendices PDF 4.98MB to the latter document. Together, these provide a record of the evaluations undertaken and a rationale for the development of the flow thresholds.

As working drafts, these guidelines are subject to review and future modification. The best evaluation will come from testing these guidelines in actual environmental assessment processes and the documents are being made available so that they can be incorporated into assessments planned over the next 6 months. We invite you to send any suggestions or comments on the documents to our IFN email by December 31, 2004.

These will be evaluated after December 2004 to determine whether modifications are required before the guidelines are finalized.