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Although the problems of water quality management are usually analyzed in the context of nonstochastic models, such an analysis may be misleading because of the substantial stochastic elements in streamflow. The effects of variance in streamflow are considered in this paper. The analysis shows that the problems of uncertainty may be dealt with by selecting a critical value of streamflow ƒθ and then by treating pollutants sufficiently so that if streamflow falls above (or below) that critical value the water quality standard will (or will not) be met. The greater the variance in streamflow, the lower the optimal critical value. Further, the level of treatment of pollutants is higher under uncertainty than it would be if there were no variance in streamflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]