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THREATS TO PARK WATERS deposits heavy metals, damaging fisheries and aquatic life, with effects on up the food chain. ^ Both rural and urban surface-disturbing activi- ties on watershed lands draining into Colonial National Historic Parh have increased stream bank and soil erosion, depositing sediments that could eventually harm the park's important wetlands. ^ Increasingly, sediments and heavy metals have been flushed into St. Croix and Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway from residential develop- ment, agricultural activity and mining within the riverway's watershed lands. ^ All-terrain vehicle use in Wrangell-St. Elias National Parh and Preserve along stream channels and banks, and surface-disturbing activities on pri- vate and state inholdings, increase the deposition of sediment into the park's riverways. Potential placer mining operations on state-owned streambeds also threaten to disrupt stream ecology. Acid deposition in park waters has caused severe damage to fish, aquatic life and vegetation in some eastern parks, and presents a serious threat to water- related resources in parks across the country. ^ The most acidic precipitation measured in the state of Maine falls on Acadia National Park. Studies have measured periodic elevations in the acidity of the park's water bodies at levels generally considered harmful to fish and other aquatic life, and a study of the park's Upper Hadlock Pond watershed showed a greater frequency of acidic episodes than any other location in Maine. ^ Despite meteorological conditions considered unlikely to present acid deposition problems, the Park Service has periodically recorded highly acidic precipitation in Olympic National Park at one loca- tion. The full extent and effects of acid precipitation in Olympic are unknown because long-term monitor- ing is lacking.