My WebLink
|
Help
|
About
|
Sign Out
Home
Browse
Search
7791
CWCB
>
UCREFRP
>
Copyright
>
7791
Metadata
Thumbnails
Annotations
Entry Properties
Last modified
7/14/2009 5:01:46 PM
Creation date
5/22/2009 6:27:55 PM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
UCREFRP
UCREFRP Catalog Number
7791
Author
National Parks and Conservation Association.
Title
Park Waters in Peril, National Parks and Conservation Association.
USFW Year
1993.
USFW - Doc Type
\
Copyright Material
YES
There are no annotations on this page.
Document management portal powered by Laserfiche WebLink 9 © 1998-2015
Laserfiche.
All rights reserved.
/
126
PDF
Print
Pages to print
Enter page numbers and/or page ranges separated by commas. For example, 1,3,5-12.
After downloading, print the document using a PDF reader (e.g. Adobe Reader).
Show annotations
View images
View plain text
PROBLEMS ~ <br />RECOMMENDATIONS <br />etting aside our national parks has obvi- <br />ously provided no assurance that the waters <br />so crucial to our parks will be adequately <br />protected. Why not? <br />NPCA sought the answer to that ques- <br />tion by reviewing the problems that impede or thwart <br />protection of park waters at 12 units of the National <br />Park System. The central problems identified by <br />NPCA's study are summarized below, together with <br />recommendations to address them. <br />At the root of the problems discussed below is <br />the fact that our society takes water for granted. That <br />fact is pervasively reflected in every facet of our way <br />of life: the way we do business, produce commodi- <br />ties, grow food, design and build communities, main- <br />tain our yards and homes, and dispose of our wastes. <br />With few exceptions, we have used and abused water <br />as if it is inexhaustible, both in quantity and quality. <br />Only as we are forced to seek "new" sources of water <br />in over-allocated water basins, dangerously diminish <br />or deplete once-massive ground water aquifers, and <br />struggle with widespread pollution in our lakes, <br />rivers and ground water resources, have we grudg- <br />ingly begun to accept the fact that our seemingly infi- <br />nite supplies of clean water are limited and vulnera- <br />ble. Yet our demands on water, both for consumption <br />and as a pollution solvent, continue to increase. <br />Even in our national parks, where we have <br />aspired consciously to protect and preserve natural <br />systems and historic sites, we have taken the avail- <br />ability of clean, abundant water largely for granted. <br />Neither the boundary lines defining our parks, nor <br />the legal protections established to preserve them, <br />reflect awareness of the role, importance and vulnera- <br />bility of water or of the need to assure its continued <br />availability and quality. <br />Park boundary lines have been drawn primarily <br />to protect specific scenic or historic features, and as a <br />result of political compromises, with little regard for <br />the need to protect important watershed areas critical <br />to park water quantity and quality. Similarly, the <br />legal and administrative tools established to protect <br />our parks were designed to apply mainly within park <br />boundaries. They seldom give the Park Service the <br />needed authority to defend park waters from activi- <br />ties beyond park boundaries, where park waters and <br />threats to park waters usually arise. Rather, the pro- <br />tection of park waters depends on a patchwork of <br />laws not designed with park protection in mind. As a <br />result, our park waters are increasingly experiencing <br />the common fate of our national waters - manipula- <br />tion, depletion and pollution. <br />The following 12 sections of this Report describe <br />the key problems confronting efforts to protect park <br />water supplies and quality. Each section concludes <br />with the National Parks and Conservation <br />Association's (NPCA) recommendations for remedy- <br />ing these problems. Some of these recommendations <br />may seem bold or far-reaching. But the recommenda- <br />tions are driven by the magnitude, severity and <br />intractability of the problems. Their reach reflects the <br />clear inadequacy of our existing legal framework to <br />deal effectively with increasingly destructive demands <br />on our nation's water resources, and with the multi- <br />plying threats those demands pose to park waters. <br />Though comprehensive, NPCA's recommenda- <br />tions do not claim to be exhaustive. To begin with, <br />the recommendations concentrate largely on water <br />quantity and quality problems that originate beyond <br />park boundaries. Without question, some activities <br />within our parks, including activities of the National <br />Park Service, also present threats to park waters and <br />deserve attention. But most of the serious and diffi- <br />cult threats to park waters arise from activities on <br />watershed lands outside park boundaries; and these <br />are the main focus of this Report. In addition, this <br />Report does not address certain difficult technical <br />issues such as the adequacy of current point source <br />permitting programs, ground water pollution or the <br />recently recognized threat of airborne mercury con- <br />tamination of water bodies. The omission of these <br />and undoubtedly similar and highly technical <br />
The URL can be used to link to this page
Your browser does not support the video tag.