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7/14/2009 5:01:46 PM
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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
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7 <br />NONPOINT SOURCE <br />POLLUTION <br />Existing laws and regulations have been inadequate <br />to control a wide range of °nonpoint sources" of <br />pollution and sediment that seriously threaten or <br />have damaged park waters, and recent amendments <br />provide only partial improvements. <br />At park after park, runoff from a wide variety of <br />activities on park watershed lands deliver harmful <br />pollutants and sediments into park waters. The <br />threats and damage to park waters from nonpoint <br />sources reflect a national problem that has not been <br />effectively addressed by our water pollution control <br />programs. According to a report by the "Water <br />Quality 2000" project,19 more than half of the <br />nation's river miles and lake acreage are polluted by <br />nonpoint source runoff from agricultural and urban <br />areas. Park Service studies show that nonpoint <br />sources of pollution and sedimentation are responsi- <br />ble for more than 70 percent of the known threats to <br />park water quality.20 <br />Major sources of nonpoint pollution include <br />pesticide and nutrient-laden runoff from agricultural <br />areas and urban and residential landscaping, contam- <br />inated runoff from streets and highways, and sewer <br />system overflows. The most dramatic example is at <br />Everglades National Park. There, severe and poten- <br />tially irreversible damage has been caused by the <br />runoff of agricultural nutrients and pesticides from <br />large agricultural areas north and upstream of the <br />park. Polluted runoff from agricultural lands also <br />drains into the St. Croix and Lower St. Croix <br />National Scenic Riverway, and runoff from heavily <br />grazed lands contaminates waters in Dinosaur <br />National Monument and Zion National Park. <br />Drainage from inadequate sewer systems or aban- <br />doned landfills have contaminated park waters in <br />Acadia National Park and Chickasaw National <br />Recreation Area, and expanding urban, residential <br />and summer home development is increasing the <br />threat of nonpoint source pollution at Acadia, St. <br />Croix and Colonial National Historic Park. <br />Another major nonpoint source of pollution <br />damage is sediment runoff from surface-disturbing <br />activities in urban, residential and rural areas, includ- <br />ing agricultural activities, building and road construc- <br />tion, timbering, grazing and mining. The increased <br />discharge of sediment into park waters presents a <br />multitude of problems to park resources. Sediments <br />can increase turbidity and decrease dissolved oxygen <br />levels, degrading biotic systems essential to many <br />aquatic species and organisms. Deposited on river <br />and lake beds, sediments bury clean gravels essential <br />to the reproduction and feeding of many aquatic <br />species. Deposited sediments can also contain dan- <br />gerous accumulations of heavy metals, pesticides or <br />other pollutants, which can poison many species if <br />they enter the food chain. At St. -Croix and Lower St. <br />Croix National Scenic Riverway, for example, surface- <br />disturbing activities near the riverway, including con- <br />struction projects, agricultural developments and <br />mining operations, are increasing the sediments and <br />heavy metals flushed into the river and its adjacent <br />wetlands. <br />Park wetlands are particularly vulnerable to <br />cumulative impacts from continuing deposition of <br />sediments. Sediments can suffocate or fill in park <br />wetlands, displacing birds, fish, mammals and <br />insects. Expanding development and construction <br />activities on increasingly urbanized watershed lands <br />near Colonial National Historic Park, for example, <br />present a serious threat to the park's important wet- <br />lands from the cumulative impact of incremental sed- <br />iment deposits. <br />Conversely, park resources also can be dam- <br />aged by activities that reduce natural levels of sedi- <br />ments in park rivers or streams, or diminish the flows <br />necessary to transport sediments in park waterways. <br />At Dinosaur National Monument, for example, sedi- <br />ments carried by spring flows in the Yampa River are <br />critical to the life cycle of endangered fishes, as well <br />as to the formation of sandbars used in recreational <br />river running. Dams proposed upstream of Dinosaur <br />would capture river sediments with disastrous results <br />to endangered fish and recreation values down- <br />stream. <br />Virtually all of these nonpoint sources have <br />been poorly regulated in the past because federal and <br />state water pollution control programs concentrated <br />primarily on controlling "end-of--the-pipe" or point <br />sources of industrial and municipal pollution. This is <br />accomplished by a permit system that limits the <br />quantity of pollutants -that may be discharged from <br />those sources. But pollution sources not involving <br />readily identifiable points of discharge -nonpoint <br />sources -were until recently addressed only by vol- <br />untary, vague and unenforceable planning programs. <br />Moreover, specific exemptions and administrative <br />practices excluded certain significant pollution <br />sources from regulation as point sources, including <br />agriculture, silviculture, construction activities and <br />mining activities. (The problems presented by con- <br />34 <br />
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