Most sustainable water supply withdrawals have connections to lakes, streams, or aquifers. Sustainability is a concept that is based on connections. To be sustainable is to provide for the needs of the present without detracting from the ability to fulfill the needs of the future. All water withdrawals have impacts - some good, and some not so good. Water supply withdrawal often means less water remains from the source for other uses. This paper discusses how Seattle Public Utilities uses conservation to help address environmental issues related to in-stream flow and aquifer management that include: meeting required absolute minimum flows (Federal (FERC) and state water right/claim requirements); negotiated in-stream flows using an In-Stream Flow Commission established by formal agreement between Seattle Public Utilities and various resource management agencies that allows a variety of non-utility interests (stakeholders) to have input and a voice in current and future decisions made by the utility relative to in-stream flow; creation of an institutional mechanism called the "water bank" for withdrawal and deposit of water needed to benefit in-stream flow in selected high-stress situations (critical flow streams) that makes provision to dedicate water conserved from utility demand management so that it can be reserved for in-stream flow needs in either the supply watershed or some other aquifer or watershed of urgent need; and, linking the concepts of adequate water for fish AND people with a public education effort so those citizens who understand the important connection between them.