Streams

May 27, 2015

Reasons We Need the Clean Water Rule

Clean Water, Clean Water Rule, Streams, water, water resources, wetlands 33 Comments

By EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy

Today, EPA and the Army are finalizing a Clean Water Rule to protect the streams and wetlands we rely on for our health, our economy, and our way of life.

As summer kicks off, many of us plan to be outside with our friends and families fishing, paddling, surfing, and swimming. And for the lakes and rivers we love to be clean, the streams and wetlands that feed them have to be clean, too. That’s just one of many reasons why this rule is so important. Here are several more:

Clean water is vital to our health. One in three Americans get drinking water from streams that lacked clear protection from pollution without the Clean Water Rule. Finalizing the rule helps protect 117 million Americans’ health.

Our economy depends on clean water. Major economic sectors—from manufacturing and energy production to agriculture, food service, tourism, and recreation—depend on clean water to function and flourish. Without clean water, business grinds to a halt—a reality too many local small business owners faced in Toledo last year when drinking water became contaminated for several days.

Clean water helps farms thrive, and the rule preserves commonsense agriculture exemptions. Farms across America depend on clean and reliable water for livestock, crops, and irrigation. Activities like planting, harvesting, and moving livestock across streams have long been exempt from Clean Water Act regulation; the Clean Water Rule doesn’t change that. The final rule doesn’t create any new permitting requirements for agriculture, maintains all previous exemptions and exclusions, and even adds exclusions for features like artificial lakes and ponds, water-filled depressions from construction, and grass swales—all to make clear our goal is to stay out of agriculture’s way. Just like before, a Clean Water Act permit is only needed if a water is going to be polluted or destroyed—and all exemptions for agriculture stay in place.

Climate change makes protection of water resources even more essential. Impacts from climate change like more intense droughts, storms, fires, and floods—not to mention warmer temperatures and sea level rise—threaten our water supplies. But healthy streams and wetlands can protect communities by trapping floodwaters, retaining moisture during droughts, recharging groundwater supplies, filtering pollution, and providing habitat for fish and wildlife. With states like California in the midst of historic drought, it’s more important than ever that we protect the clean water we’ve got.

Clear protections mean cleaner water. The Clean Water Act has protected our health for more than 40 years—and helped our nation clean up hundreds of thousands of miles of polluted waterways. But Supreme Court decisions in 2001 and 2006 threw protections into question for 60 percent of our nation’s streams and millions of acres of wetlands. Using the latest science, this rule clears up the confusion, providing greater certainty for the first time in more than a decade about which waters are important to protect.

Science shows us the most important waters to protect. In developing the Clean Water Rule, the Agencies used the latest science, including a report summarizing more than 1,200 peer-reviewed, published scientific studies—which showed small streams and wetlands play an important role in the health of larger downstream waterways like rivers and lakes.

You asked for greater clarity. Members of Congress, state and local officials, industry, agriculture, environmental groups, scientists, and the public called on EPA and the Army to clarify which waters are protected under the Clean Water Act. With this rule, the agencies are responding to those requests and addressing the Supreme Court decisions. EPA and the Army held hundreds of meetings with stakeholders across the country, reviewed over a million public comments, and listened carefully to perspectives from all sides. All of this input shaped and improved the final rule we’re announcing today.

Just as importantly, there are lots of things the rule doesn’t do. The rule only protects waters historically covered under the Clean Water Act. It doesn’t interfere with private property rights, and it only covers water—not land use. It also doesn’t regulate most ditches, doesn’t regulate groundwater or shallow subsurface flows, and doesn’t change policy on irrigation or water transfers.

These are just a few of the many reasons why clean water and this rule are important—learn more here, and share yours with #CleanWaterRules.

Editor's Note: The views expressed here are intended to explain EPA policy. They do not change anyone's rights or obligations. You may share this post. However, please do not change the title or the content, or remove EPA’s identity as the author. If you do make substantive changes, please do not attribute the edited title or content to EPA or the author.

EPA's official web site is www.epa.gov. Some links on this page may redirect users from the EPA website to specific content on a non-EPA, third-party site. In doing so, EPA is directing you only to the specific content referenced at the time of publication, not to any other content that may appear on the same webpage or elsewhere on the third-party site, or be added at a later date.

EPA is providing this link for informational purposes only. EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of non-EPA information provided by any third-party sites or any other linked site. EPA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies, internet applications or any policies or information expressed therein.

May 26, 2015

Protecting Clean Water

Clean Water, Clean Water Rule, Streams, water 1 Comment

Photo by Deb Stipa

By Robert Goo

Clean water is important to me because understanding how to protect water resources is my job and enjoying water activities is my favorite hobby. As an environmental protection specialist for the EPA, my work centers on how to change the way we design our cities and manage our water resources. In my personal life, I love being on the water, whether I’m swimming, surfing or paddling my large fleet of canoes, kayaks or paddleboards. I also volunteer for local water conservation organizations such as the Friends of Sligo Creek and Team River Runner which helps active duty and veteran service members heal through water paddle sports. Since I spend so much time in the water I will be glad when the Clean Water Rule is finalized because it protects the streams and wetlands that flow down into the rivers where I paddle.

All my life I’ve been drawn to water — first as an explorer of streams as a child and then as an adolescent fisherman. As an adult, I spend much of my free time pursuing aquatic sports. Having clean water is very important to me as a diver, kayaker, surfer and paddle boarder since I am frequently immersed or under water. My daughter Kira often paddles and surfs with me and I don’t want her to get sick from sharing these activities with me.

Since I am in or on the river all year round,except when it’s frozen solid, I see how the seasons affect water quality and the flow of the Potomac River as it flows through Washington, D.C. In the winter, the river is usually very clear and you can see its bottom. During spring and fall the creeks swell and the rains wash construction- and development-related sediment into the river. As a result the water is often muddy and filled with debris, trash and plastic containers and pieces of polystyrene. When it’s 100 degrees outside, the river level drops and often turns green from algae growth that is stimulated by an excess of nutrients that wash into the river from lawns and farmlands.

I’m constantly reminded of how important clean water is because I’m in the water several times a week. My passion for water motivates me to promote solutions that can protect and restore water resources while also achieving other societal goals. As I glide down the river or sit on a swell looking at the beach, it’s clear to me that forests and beaches represent natural design principles that can be incorporated into the way we build our cities and transportation systems. I see opportunities on almost every urban surface, whether it’s a street, roof, lawn or sidewalk to put down permeable pavement, plant a rain garden, add a green roof or a street tree that can filter pollutants and keep them from polluting the waters I swim and paddle in. I’m thankful for the opportunity to work on our agency solutions that I believe will become standard procedures in the future. The solutions will produce beautiful and multi-functional landscapes and buildings that simultaneously provide for our transportation needs, reduce energy use, increase our resilience to climate change and promote economic development and healthy communities.

About the author: Robert Goo is an environmental protection specialist in the Office of Water in Washington, D.C. and his focus is promoting water sensitive designs using green infrastructure and low impact development approaches. Before coming to EPA, Robert worked as a programmer analyst at the University of Michigan’s Kresge Hearing Research Institute and at Washington University in Saint Louis, MO for the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging. He lives in Takoma Park, Maryland with his daughter Kira who shares his love of snowboarding, mountain biking and surfing. He is also an avid community gardener and bikes to work year round.

Editor's Note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone. EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog, nor does EPA endorse the opinions or positions expressed. You may share this post. However, please do not change the title or the content. If you do make changes, please do not attribute the edited title or content to EPA or the author.

EPA's official web site is www.epa.gov. Some links on this page may redirect users from the EPA website to a non-EPA, third-party site. In doing so, EPA is directing you only to the specific content referenced at the time of publication, not to any other content that may appear on the same webpage or elsewhere on the third-party site, or be added at a later date.

EPA is providing this link for informational purposes only. EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of non-EPA information provided by any third-party sites or any other linked site. EPA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies, internet applications or any policies or information expressed therein.

Mar 26, 2015

Five Ways Streams and Wetlands Keep Us and Our Environment Healthy

bays, coastal waters, downstreams rivers, floodwaters, groundwater, Lakes, Streams, water, wetlands 8 Comments

You may have heard that we’re proposing a rule to clarify which streams and wetlands are protected under the Clean Water Act. Right now, 60 percent of our streams and millions of acres of wetlands lack clear protection from pollution and destruction.

You might not think that your local stream or that wetland in the woods is a big deal, but the water that flows through it could end up hundreds of miles away as someone’s drinking water or where people swim or fish. Streams and wetlands aren’t just a little piece of our water system; they’re the foundation. They generate a large portion of the water that ends up in our lakes and rivers – so what happens upstream affects everything that lies downstream, including the water that flows by our homes and out of our taps.

Jan 15, 2015

Scientific Report Shows Strong Connection between Wetlands, Streams, Rivers and Estuaries

Estuaries, rivers, Streams, water, wetland 5 Comments

By Lek Kadeli

You may have noticed along a favorite hiking trail that some streams only appear after rainfall, or maybe you’ve seen wetlands far from the nearest river. You probably didn’t think about the importance of those smaller water bodies. But a new scientific report we’re releasing today shows that small streams and wetlands play an important role in the health of larger downstream waterways like rivers and lakes.

Our researchers conducted an extensive, thorough review of more than 1,200 peer-reviewed, published scientific studies to learn how small streams and wetlands connect to larger, downstream water bodies. The results of their work are being released today. The report, Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Review and Synthesis of the Scientific Evidence, is a state-of-the-science report that presents findings on the connectivity of streams and wetlands to larger water bodies.

So, what did the researchers find?

The scientific literature clearly demonstrates that streams, regardless of their size or frequency of flow, are connected to downstream waters in ways that strongly influence their function.
The literature also shows that wetlands and open waters in riparian areas (transition areas or zones between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems) and floodplains are integrated with streams and rivers, and help protect downstream waters from pollution.
There is ample evidence illustrating that many wetlands and open waters located outside of riparian areas and floodplains provide functions that could benefit rivers, lakes, and other downstream waters, even where they lack surface water connections. Some potential benefits of these wetlands, in fact, are due to their isolation, rather than their connectivity.
Connectivity between waters occurs in gradients determined by the physical, chemical and biological environment.
The incremental contributions of individual streams and wetlands are cumulative across entire watersheds.

Before finalizing these conclusions, our researchers subjected early drafts of the report to rigorous scientific review. Reviewers came from academia, consultation groups, and other federal agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Our Science Advisory Board reviewed the September 2013 draft of the report and comments were received from members of the public on that draft.

Based on both the extensive, state-of-the-science report and the rigorous peer review process it received, this report makes it clear: What happens in these streams and wetlands has a significant impact on downstream water bodies, including our nation’s largest waterways.

About the Author: Lek Kadeli is the Acting Assistant Administrator in EPA’s Office of Research and Development.

Jan 15, 2015

Scientific Report Shows Strong Connection between Wetlands, Streams, Rivers and Estuaries

Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters, Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Review and Synthesis of the Scientific Evidence, EPA Connect, EPA Office of Water, rivers, Streams, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, wetlands 0 Comments

The following excerpt is reposted from “EPA Connect, the Official Blog of EPA Leadership”

EPA recently released a scientific report about the connectivity of U.S. waters.

By Lek Kadeli

Our researchers conducted an extensive, thorough review of more than 1,200 peer-reviewed, published scientific studies to learn how small streams and wetlands connect to larger, downstream water bodies. The results of their work are being released today. The report, Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Review and Synthesis of the Scientific Evidence, is a state-of-the-science report that presents findings on the connectivity of streams and wetlands to larger water bodies.

Read the rest of the post.

Sep 9, 2014

Do You Choose Clean Water?

Clean Water, drinking water, Lakes, rivers, Streams, Thunderclap, Tumblr, twitter, water 3 Comments

By Travis Loop

Do you choose clean water? If so, we need your voice. And the voices of your friends.

Clean water is important – for drinking, swimming, and fishing. We need it for our communities, farms, and businesses. But right now, 60 percent of our streams and millions of acres of wetlands across the country aren’t clearly protected from pollution and destruction. In fact, one in three Americans—117 million of us—get our drinking water from streams that are vulnerable. To have clean water downstream in the rivers and lakes in our neighborhoods, we need healthy headwaters upstream. That’s why we’ve proposed to strengthen protection for our water.

We hope you’ll support our clean water proposal. To help you do that, and get your friends to also voice their support, we’re using a new tool called Thunderclap; it’s like a virtual flash mob.

Here’s how it works: you agree to let Thunderclap post a one-time message on your social networks (Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr) on Monday, September 29 at 2:00 pm EDT. If 500 or more people sign up to participate, the message will be posted on everyone’s walls and feeds at the same time. But if fewer than 500 sign up, nothing happens. So it’s important to both sign up and encourage others to do so.

Here’s the message we’re asking you to let us post on your behalf: “Clean water is important to me. I want EPA to protect it for my health, my family, and my community. www.epa.gov/USwaters”
To sum up, you can participate through these two steps:

Sign up to join the Thunderclap for Clean Water: http://thndr.it/1rUOiaB
Share the link to the Thunderclap with your friends and followers so we get at least 500 people sharing the message:
a. Facebook
b. Twitter
c. Tumblr

Watch EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy talk about our proposal to protect clean water: http://bit.ly/1h5JgjW

Read about the proposal to protect clean water: epa.gov/uswaters

About the author: Travis Loop is the communications director for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He chooses clean water for his kids and for surfing.

Nov 26, 2013

Clarifying Protection for Streams and Wetlands

clean water act, epa, nancy stoner, Streams, water, wetlands 3 Comments

In September, we joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in developing a proposed rule that will provide greater consistency, certainty, and predictability nationwide by clarifying where the Clean Water Act applies – and where it doesn’t. These improvements are necessary to reduce costs and minimize delays in the permit process, and protect waters that are vital to public health, the environment, and the economy.

Over the past decade, Supreme Court rulings have caused confusion about which streams and wetlands are protected from pollution and development under the Clean Water Act. As a result, members of Congress, state and local officials, industry, agriculture, environmental groups, and the public asked EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to clarify jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act.

In response, we’ve developed a draft rule that takes into account the more narrow reading of the Clean Water Act jurisdiction established by the Supreme Court. This means that EPA’s jurisdiction will only include the protection of the same waters that have historically been covered under the Clean Water Act for the past 40 years – in fact, it will be a smaller set of waters than before the Supreme Court decision.

Jun 18, 2013

Innovative Technology for Water

Clean Water, drinking water, energy, rivers, safe water, Streams, water, water monitoring 3 Comments

Several links below exit EPA
By Nancy Stoner

In March, I released a Water Technology Innovation Blueprint while visiting the University of South Florida’s (USF) College of Global Sustainability in partnership with the Water Environment Federation (WEF). This Blueprint promotes technology innovation across the national water program as a means to speed progress toward clean and safe water.

Why is technology innovation so important? With the challenges facing our water resources, it presents opportunities to fix these challenges faster, with significantly less cost and energy consumption. During this visit I toured USF laboratories where new technologies are already addressing some of the top ten issues mentioned in the Blueprint. It is easy to see a paradigm shift is occurring across the water sector.

In May, I visited Clemson University’s Water Institute to learn about the Intelligent River project, which was awarded $3 million in 2011 by the National Science Foundation. Clemson is developing methods of harnessing information technology to improve decision making for river systems, like the Savannah River Basin, into which the streams near Clemson flow. Clemson is focused on collecting data from all kinds of water monitoring equipment and developing programs that will analyze all of that data to assist in river management. It can be used not only to provide continual feedback on water pollution, flow levels, aquatic life issues and temperature, but also predict how those water quality and quantity conditions will change based on the decisions made by government, utilities, industry, and watershed groups. This information could potentially be available to all of those groups to achieve goals like ensuring that there is more water to use during a drought, or better habitat for fish, and cleaner source water for drinking.

Next I went to Oakland, California to the East Bay Municipal Utilities District. This wastewater facility has implemented a series of projects to produce energy, including generation of methane from waste that in turn powers generators to run a renewable energy system. This is the first of its kind in North America to be a net-energy producer. With 150,000 drinking water and 15,000 wastewater facilities nationwide accounting for 4% of the national electricity consumption, equivalent to about 56 billion kilowatt hours and costing around $4 billion dollars, a facility that not only conserves energy but generates it holds significant promise.

I plan to continue visiting innovative technology projects around the country to show their tremendous potential for solving our water challenges

About the author: Nancy Stoner is the Acting Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Water.

May 30, 2013

Answering the Call of the Water

Clarion River, In Your Backyard, Land, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, River Basin, Sojourn, Streams, Water Quality, Watersheds, What you can do 1 Comment

By Christina Catanese

This time of year seems to bring people out of the woodwork after being cooped up all winter, to enjoy the sun and green of spring. For me, this means I must answer the Call of the Water and take some time in nature and out on the water.

Last week, I spent a few days kayaking the Clarion River near the Allegheny National Forest. It didn’t take long before the stress of normal life that had built up in my shoulders melted away, as my energy and perspective became focused on reconnecting with the land and waters in my native Western Pennsylvania.

Looking downstream from the banks of the Clarion

Looking upstream from the banks of the Clarion

As the blades of my paddle dipped through the water, I pictured those same, splashing water molecules making their way down the Clarion, into the Allegheny River, and all the way to my hometown of Pittsburgh. There, they would meet other molecules from the Monongahela, become the Ohio River, then the Mississippi, and finally flow into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

Thinking about the journey these little H2Os would go through illuminated the concept of a watershed for me. I realized that anything I did to the water way up in Northwestern Pennsylvania would have an impact on the water quality for millions of people that live downstream… so I’d better hold on to that granola bar wrapper if I didn’t want it to show up late for Mardi Gras. Imagining the long path this water would take made the measly 4 miles I kayaked seem like cake – what an epic journey it would be to follow that water all that way!

A heron I encountered during my kayaking trip

Spending time on rivers can give us perspective and helps us get to know our rivers, and ourselves, in a totally new way. Whether they flow through forested or urban areas (or a combination), we see their many uses as well as their beauty, and come to appreciate them as part of a whole network of rivers and streams that connect and support us.

That’s why many environmental and watershed groups around the country sponsor sojourns every year to help people reconnect with their rivers. Some sojourns are just a few miles, while others paddle the entire length of a river over the course of a few days. A quick survey reveals tons of sojourning opportunities in the Mid Atlantic region:

Is there a sojourn happening on a river near you not on this list? Let us know! Don’t see a sojourn happening on your river? Start your own.

This spring and summer, I hope you too will answer the Call of the Water and get to know a river near you just a little bit better.

About the Author: Christina Catanese has worked at EPA since 2010, in the Water Protection Division’s Office of Program Support. Originally from Pittsburgh, Christina has lived in Philadelphia since attending the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied Environmental Studies, Political Science, and Hydrogeology. When not in the office, Christina enjoys performing, choreographing and teaching modern dance.

Apr 25, 2013

All Aboard for Earth Week

Apps, earth day, Energy Production & Reduction, Green Landscaping, Local Community, Outreach, Philadelphia, Recreational Use, Streams, WaterSense, wetlands, What you can do 0 Comments

By Tom Damm A group of us got Earth Week off on the right track Monday when we set up EPA information tables at one of the busiest train stations in the country – 30^th Street Station in Philadelphia. It was part of the third annual Amtrak-EPA Earth Day Fair, and commuters and school kids cruised the aisles, stopping by to ask questions, pose with mascots like Swampy the Frog, and check out displays on a variety of environmental topics.

A view of the festivities at 30th Street Station on Earth Day 2013

Water issues were well represented. We had information on green landscaping, WaterSense products to save water and money, and our Net Zero Energy push to help water and wastewater utilities cut energy costs. At my table, I had fact sheets on the importance of streams and wetlands, particularly small streams that feed bigger ones and play a key role in the quality of water downstream. Visitors were attracted by the sign, “How’s Your Waterway? Check it out Here.” I demonstrated on my laptop how they could determine the health of their local streams, creeks and rivers with EPA’s new app and website, “How’s My Waterway?.” We just plugged in their zip code and in seconds their nearest waterways showed up on the screen with information on their condition. “I always wanted to know that. I fish. Thanks!,” was one response. You still have a few days to get involved in Earth Week activities happening in your area. And if you don’t get a chance to join in this week, remember, Every Day is Earth Day. About the Author: Tom Damm has been with EPA since 2002 and now serves as communications coordinator for the region’s Water Protection Division.

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