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THREATS TO PARK WATERS Contaminated runoff from agricultural, ranching, urban and residential areas presents similar threats. ^ Nutrients and pesticides, flushed from agricul- tural areas into waters that eventually flow into Everglades National Parh, have stimulated the growth of non-native cattails that threaten to choke out the park's native sawgrass and degrade critical park habitat. ^ Toxic pesticides lace irrigation runoff from cranberry farms near St. Croix and Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, some of which drains into the riverway. While the concentrations discharged into the riverway are undetermined, some of the pes- ticides are considered toxic to human and animal life. ^ Nutrient runoff from expanding residential development on watershed lands adjacent to Acadia National Parh and St. Croix and Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway presents an increasingly serious threat. Heavy metals, acids and other hazardous chemi- cals leaching from abandoned mining and drilling sites also jeopardize the quality of park waters. ^ Two acres of abandoned mine tailings in Wrangell-St. Elias National Parh and Preserve are leaching heavy metals into ground and sur`ace waters. Until a recent clean-up, heavy metals also leached into park waters from decomposed bags con- taining 83 tons of abandoned drilling muds from an abandoned oil and gas site in the park. ^ For years, heavy metals and acid runoff from an abandoned mine tailings pile outside Yellowstone National Parh drained and leached into Soda Butte Creek, which flows into the park, destroying fish and other aquatic life. Today, the tailings remain a serious threat, despite efforts to stabilize the site. Existing mines, potential development of mining claims and oil and gas drilling in or around parks pre- sent a significant risk that toxic chemicals, acids, and heavy metals will drain, leach or accidentally be dis- charged into park waters or onto watershed lands that drain into the parks. ^ Mining activities on extensive state and native inholdings within Wrangell-St. Elias and other Alasha parhs are beyond the reach of National Park Service mining regulations. Thousands of acres of existing mining claims within the parks continue to pose potential contamination threats unless the claims are bought out. Similar risks are also presented by oil and gas leasing in adjacent watershed lands. ^ Mining claims and oil and gas leases blanket the national forest lands surrounding Yellowstone National Parh and pose threats from leaching, drainage and accidental discharges if they are developed. Accidental and sometimes deliberate spills from the storage, transportation or use of chemicals, oil and fuels along park waterways or on park watershed lands have damaged and threaten to contaminate park waters. ^ Three significant spills of fuel oil from storage tanks entered waterways upstream of Colonial National Historic Parh, fortunately with only short- term impacts. The hazardous chemical "Kepone," deliberately and illegally dumped over a decade ago into city sewage systems that empty into the James River, continues to show up in Colonial's wetlands and in some terrestrial animals in the park. ^ In 1989, a ruptured oil pipeline upstream of Dinosaur National Monument spilled 13,000 gallons of light crude into the Yampa River, sending a widespread film of oil down the river into the monu- ment. The pollution may have caused or contributed to a dramatic drop that year in the reproduction of endangered Colorado squawfish in the monument. ^ 31,000 gallons of fuel oil leaked into the ground from a ruptured tank serving underground bomb shelters built on the Royal Teton Ranch north of Yellowstone National Park, threatening to pollute an important trout spawning tributary of the Yellowstone River. While the spill was contained, a more serious accident could affect fish populations in Yellowstone by harming fish that travel upstream into the park. Offshore oil drilling and transportation present the obvious and well-known threat of oil spills. The Exxon Valdez incident is only the most spectacular illustration of the inevitable oil spills which can dev- astate park coastal waters and seashore ecosystems. ^ In 1988, an offshore oil spill of 230,000 gal- lons (just 1/50th of the Exxon Valdez spill) deposited oil along the entire ocean shoreline of Olympic National Parh, killing 50,000 birds, unknown num- bers of sea otters and other mammals, and causing untold ecological damage. A recent spill of fuel oil from a sunken ship caused similar, though less exten- sive, damage. ^ Offshore oil and gas leasing has been pro- posed near virtually every national park unit with coastal waters. The risks to park coastal waters and shorelines have merely been deferred by a current moratorium on leasing and development. Runoff and deposition of sediment from surface- disturbing activities on watershed lands outside park boundaries drain into the parks, threatening to suffo- cate and destroy park wetlands, and displacing birds, fish, mammals and insects. Elevated sediment levels in park rivers and streams increases turbidity, decreases dissolved oxygen levels and sometimes