Healthy Working River Definition

PRTI Definition of "Healthy Working River" Adopted 5-11-18

Our definition of a healthy working river is one that supplies the goods and services demanded by our complex society, within the existing and evolving water rights system and honoring existing property rights, while maintaining and improving ecological integrity and resilience. The word "river" connotes not only the river channel and its banks but also the upper watershed that supplies the water, the lands that are irrigated by the river, the areas supplied with domestic and industrial water from the river, and the treated wastewater and other return flows that come back into the river.