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PREFACE Thundering falls, coursing rivers, jeweled lakes, secret brooks, steaming geysers, mysterious aquifers, desert springs: water is a central element in national park landscapes that have inspired awe, peace and delight in generations of visitors. Water is also crucial to the health of our parks. Like their human visitors, our parks require constant replenishment of unpolluted water to sustain the nat- ural systems that are their vibrant heartbeat. Denied adequate supplies of clean water, our parks will be impoverished and the ecological systems they pre- serve will languish and die. Yet that may be exactly where we are headed. As this Report documents, park waters are under siege. The unquenchable thirst of ever-expanding urban, energy, agricultural and industrial development cre- ates increasing demands to divert or deplete surface and ground waters essential to our parks. And the water that reaches our parks is often tainted by the continuing flush of pollutants and sediments into our lakes, streams and ground water. For the most part, this is a silent siege. Few peo- ple are aware of the multitude of serious threats to national park waters or understand the peril con- fronting our parks. We are still a society that turns on the tap and washes away wastes without much thought about where the water comes from or where it goes. The unavoidable truth, of course, is that most of us -and many of our parks -are downstream from someone. Our parks, as sensitive barometers of environmental health, may be among the first victims of these expanding threats to a vital resource. Over recent years, NPCA's park protection efforts have encountered an increasing number and variety of threats to park waters, making plain the need for a more comprehensive summary and assess- ment of those threats. Thus, with generous financial support from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and the Tides Foundation, NPCA under- took to identify and analyze the primary threats to the quantity and quality of park water. We began by initiating the detailed "case studies" that make up the second half of this Report. The case studies examine the water resource problems at a dozen units of the National Park System representing a diversity of geographic locations and environs: Maine to Florida, Alaska to Arizona; desert to rainfor- est, wetland to glacier. Although the case studies rep- resent only a sampling of the 367 park units that comprise the National Park System, they highlight the magnitude, severity, and pervasiveness of the threats to both water quantity and quality throughout the system. The case studies also provide important insights into the key obstacles and problems confronted by the National Park Service in addressing threats to park waters. NPCA's assessment of the 12 most press- ing obstacles and problems makes up the first half of this Report. Common to all of those problems are the crippling constraints that limit Park Service authority or capacity to take effective action to protect park waters. Each problem section concludes with NPCA's recommendations for both legislative and administra- tive action to remedy those problems. Our recom- mendations are far-reaching and challenging. NPCA believes, however, that action on them is essential. The recommendations address real problems that must be solved if we are to preserve vibrant, living national parks as "the best idea we ever had." Finally, it is essential to recognize that our parks are, indeed, living barometers of our nation's envi- ronmental health. The threats from which they now suffer are a grave warning of the pervasive danger to our nation's waters. With foresight, carefully planned reforms and determined action, however, we can take steps that will not only preserve our parks, but will also protect and renew one of our nation's most vital resources. Ala..-~ ~. ~,~~~~.,,.e- Paul C. Pritchard President