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THREATS TO PARK WATERS riverbed structure, extir- pating endangered fish and degrading visitor experience. . ,~,.-. ^ Low releases of ' ~ '~ , - ~.~,* ~t, water from the St. Croix ~+ ~ '~' '!~`- f ~, Falls dam and hydroelec- ~"' i~.' Y -` tric plant, in Lower St. ~'~ ~ '+ Croix National Scenic - _ Riverway, expose the ~ , ~~~ downstream habitat of the Higgins Eye pearly mussel ` .. to subzero Minnesota winters, threatening to ` *~, extinguish the mussel's , last remaining population. ~- ~ t ^ Existing hydro- 4 ~ ~ "~' , electric dams and diver- s .. - , +~•~ . ~ " ~;r_,~. ; sions, both within and a ~`!_~ ,, downstream of Olympic ,'~'~~ ` ~~ National Park, prevent salmon and other anadro- mous fish from migrating up several major rivers into the park, affecting wildlife that normally feed on migrating fish. More than 50 new proposals for downstream hydroelectric dams and diversions threaten to create similar prob- lems on other park rivers. Existing and proposed ground water pumping threatens to diminish or dry up aquifers that sustain critical springs, seeps, wetlands and geothermal resources, and feed streams and other water bodies in our parks. ^ Proposals to pump huge quantities of ground water to supply the expanding demands of Las Vegas, as well as mining and agricultural operations, could seriously deplete the aquifer sustaining the springs and seeps critical to wildlife and plants in Death Valley National Monument. ^ Ground water pumping and drilling of arte- sian wells may already have caused many of the fresh water and mineralized springs in Chichasaw National Recreation Area to cease flowing. ^ The pumping of geothermal ground water in the Corwin Springs Known Geothermal Area dried up a hot spring near Yellowstone National Parh, and further geothermal development may put the park's reknowned geothermal features at risk. ^ Ground water pumping at many wells just across the U.S./Mexican border from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument has dramatically lowered the water table in the aquifer believed to feed park springs. WATER QUALITY ~a 0 r a a ~; Pollution from a wide range of sources, most of which have been beyond effective regulation under existing law, has seriously damaged and increasingly threatens park waters. Without major changes in water quality regulation and pollution control pro- grams, or basic changes in the ethics governing eco- nomic and social behavior, the interdependence of all waters guarantees that our parks will continue to suf- fer increasingly severe damage. Pollution from active and abandoned landfills, toxic dumps, inadequate septic and waste water dis- posal systems, underground storage tanks and a host of other sources located on waterways flowing into parks, or on watersheds draining into parks, have damaged and severely threaten the quality of park surface and ground water. ^ For more than ten years, pollution leaching from an abandoned landfill contaminated Acadia National Parh's Marshall Brook, severely damaging a premier trout fishery and killing other aquatic life. Persistent efforts by the Park Service eventually led to clean-up of the site, but the stream is still recovering, and the Park Service believes that other local landfills may present similar problems. ^ Sewage from the nearby community of Sulphur, Oklahoma, periodically leaked into Chichasaw National Recreation Area waterways until the town's main sewer line was recently rebuilt. Inadequate control of municipal and agricultural runoff, however, still threatens damage. A 1988 offshore oil spill contaminated the entire shoreline of Olympic National Parh, hilling 50,000 birds, unhnown numbers of sea otters and other mammals, and causing untold ecological damage.