Five Ways Streams and Wetlands Keep Us and Our Environment Healthy
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.
There are many ways that streams and wetlands keep us and our environment healthy. Here are five of the biggest ones:
1. Filter pollution: Streams and wetlands reduce the pollution that flows to downstream rivers, lakes, bays and coastal waters. They help to trap nitrogen and phosphorus, which can cause environmental issues if they accumulate too much in one place. Small streams have been estimated to remove 20 to 40 percent of the nitrogen that otherwise would go downstream. Research in Oregon’s Rock Creek basin found that headwater streams could retain sediment for more than 110 years – and without the Congaree Bottomland Hardwood Swamp in South Carolina, nearby communities would need to build a $5 million wastewater treatment plant.
2. Trap floodwaters: Streams and wetlands can absorb significant amounts of rain and snowmelt before they flood, preventing that water from flowing downstream and putting homes and businesses at risk. The wetlands along the Mississippi River once stored at least 60 days of floodwater. Now they store only 12 days, because most have been filled or drained. As a result, the towns and cities along the river now flood more frequently.
3. Recharge groundwater: Streams and wetlands play a key role in recharging groundwater. A major source of water in rivers in the Southwest is from groundwater released into streams that only flow part of the year. And in the Southeast, South Carolina’s pocosins and hardwood swamps are estimated to store 45.8 billion gallons of water, or enough to fill 70,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.
4. Provide drinking water: Streams and wetlands play a critical role in providing clean drinking water by ensuring a continuous flow of water to surface waters and helping recharge underground aquifers. In the continental United States, 60 percent of streams only flow after rain or in certain times of the year. Approximately 117 million people – one in three Americans – get drinking water from public systems that rely on these streams.
5. Provide habitat for fish and wildlife: More than one-third of our country’s threatened and endangered species live only in wetlands, and nearly half use wetlands at some point in their lives. For many animals and plants, like wood ducks, muskrat, cattails and swamp rose, inland wetlands are the only places they can live. For others, such as striped bass, peregrine falcons, otters, black bears, raccoons and deer, wetlands provide important food, water or shelter.
Ali
Mar 26, 2015 @ 14:52:14
Hello,
I think pollution to one more big problem in this world..
Herman Edelman
Mar 26, 2015 @ 14:53:01
I recently moved with my family to Neptune, New Jersey, 07753, to a condominium/townhouse facing the Shark River, it is evident that this river is a wetland, and is home to many migrating water fowls. A few months ago there was a massive fish kill, the river is in deep trouble, and obviously losing water frontage. It is claimed by local people that what the river needs is a dredging. However all of the adjoining towns refuse to accept any of the dredged materials on to their property. So I would ask you if you can tell me if this water way is protected by US EPA policy, and if so who and where should we make the request for help. Or any other advice you may wish to give in this request
Kay
Mar 27, 2015 @ 14:53:31
Check out this restoration technique they’ve started implementing in PA and MD in cases like yours. It’s called the BSR Restoration
Kay
Mar 27, 2015 @ 14:53:56
How does the EPA propose to mediate the issue of mill dam sediment impacting many of the original Holocene wetland ecosystems? (a major source of the nitrates and phosphates stimulating the eutrophication process, especially in the Chesapeake Bay!)
Russ Cohen
Mar 27, 2015 @ 14:54:31
Thanks for this post. For a more detailed description of the ecological and other beneficial functions and values of rivers and streams, and vegetated stream corridors, I recommend the nine fact sheets
Boss Towing
Mar 28, 2015 @ 14:55:07
Interesting news. Nice blog shared by the owner.
Brady
Apr 06, 2015 @ 14:44:18
In Columbia County, Oregon Almost all the forests are privately owned much of it by multinational investment. In a region once called temperate rain forest the soils are being devastated by cycle after cycle of increasingly “efficient” destructive timber practices. I can show pictures any day of the week of year round streams in stream canyons that are 100% clearcut, helicopter sprayed with several chemicals many of which are an absolute breach of the label in such terrain. Everything is approved by the Oregon Department of forestry without issue. I can show you where the local timber company with large scale holdings logged to within 50 feet of the Clatskanie River (a key salmon bearing river) on steep terrain pilled all debris and burned them and sprayed with several chemicals. If you travel up Hwy 47 between Clatskanie the devastation of entire mountain tops and many hundreds of acres of steep sliding slopes once covered in timber are all along the way. Email me and I will help you in every way you can to call the Oregon State Department of Forestry into real and active oversight instead of the current mascarade to enrich the corporate interests at the expense of our watersheds and our once vibrant forests.
Anonymous
Jul 30, 2015 @ 06:01:22
Hi! This post could not be written any better! Reading this
post reminds me of my good old room mate! He always kept chatting about this.
I will forward this write-up to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read.
Thanks for sharing!