Acuña, V

Allen, DC

Bonada, N

Boulton, AJ

Carlson, SM

Dahm, CN

Datry, T

Leigh, C

Marshall, JC

Negus, P

Richardson, JS

Sabater, S

Stevenson, RJ

Steward, AL

Stubbington, R

Tockner, K

Vander Vorste, R

Science

[Departement_IRSTEA]Eaux [TR1_IRSTEA]QUASARE [ADD1_IRSTEA]Systèmes aquatiques soumis à des pressions multiplesInternational audienc

Marshall, J.C.

Acuna, V.

Allen, D.C.

Bonada, N.

Boulton, A.J.

Carlson, S.M.

Dahm, C.N.

Datry, T.

Leigh, C.

Negus, P.

Richardson, J.S.

Sabater, Sergi

Stevenson, R.J.

Steward, A.L.

Stubbington, R.

Tockner, K.

Vander Vorste, R.

HAL: Hyper Article en Ligne

Protecting U.S. temporary waterways

Hal-Diderot

Marshall, Jonathan C.

Acuña, Vicenç

Allen, Daniel C.

Bonada, Núria

Boulton, Andrew J.

Carlson, Stephanie M.

Dahm, Clifford N.

Datry, Thibault

Leigh, Catherine

Negus, Peter

Richardson, John S.

Jan Stevenson, R.

Steward, Alisha L.

Stubbington, Rachel

Tockner, Klement

Vorste, RossVander

University of Queensland eSpace

Protecting the ecological health of rivers relies on maintaining intact flows from source areas to downstream navigable waters (1). Yet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to rescind legal protection of tributary rivers, streams, and wetlands that do not have year-round flows (temporary waterways) and whose surface waters contribute flow to permanent navigable waters (2). This decision would severely damage the condition and uses of many U.S. waters, both temporary and navigable.Full Tex

Marshall, Jonathan C

Acuna, Vicenc

Allen, Daniel C

Bonada, Nuria

Boulton, Andrew J

Carlson, Stephanie M

Dahm, Clifford N

Richardson, John S

Stevenson, R Jan

Steward, Alisha L

Vander Vorste, Ross

Griffith Research Online

Nottingham Trent Institutional Repository (IRep)

Protecting US river health by maintaining the legal status of their temporary waterways Jonathan C. Marshall1,2,*, Vicenç Acuña3, Daniel C. Allen4, Núria Bonada5, Andrew J. Boulton6, Stephanie M. Carlson7, Clifford N. Dahm8, Thibault Datry9, Catherine Leigh10,11,2, Peter Negus1, John S. Richardson12, Sergi Sabater3,13, Alisha L. Steward1,2, Rachel Stubbington14, Klement Tockner15,16, Ross Vander Vorste7 1Queensland Department of Environment and Science, Water Planning Ecology, Brisbane, QLD, 4001, Australia.  2Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia. 3Catalan Institute for Water Research, Carrer Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain. 4Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 73019, USA 5Grup de Recerca Freshwater Ecology, Hydrology and Management (FEHM-Lab), Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Facultat de Biologia, Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain 6School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia 7Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA. 8Department of Biology, University of New Mexico,  Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 9IRSTEA, UR RiverLy, Centre de Lyon-Villeurbanne, Villeurbanne, France 10Institute for Future Environments, and School of Mathematical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. 11ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. 12Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z4 13Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Girona, Girona, Spain 14School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK. 15Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, IGB, Berlin, Germany 16Austrian Science Fund, FWF, Vienna, Austria *Corresponding author. Email: jonathan.marshall@des.qld.gov.au To view or to add to a list of signatories in support of this letter see: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AS5ew4S3CI3C-5TECAmNgi4cu8O48BY4Wl1AqqIKpog/edit?usp=sharing  Protecting the ecological health of rivers relies on maintaining intact flows from source areas to downstream navigable waters. Yet, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) intends to rescind legal protection of tributary rivers, streams and wetlands that do not have year-round flows (temporary waterways), and whose surface waters contribute flow to permanent ‘navigable waters’ (1). As scientists who study and manage rivers globally, it is our opinion that this decision would severely damage the condition and uses of many US waters, both temporary and navigable. Why this opinion? Temporary waterways are globally widespread and abundant. In the USA they form 59% of river miles overall and over 90% in some large regions (2). Recent research in the USA and worldwide has revealed the many ecosystem services to humans provided by temporary waterways, including water purification and water provisioning, thus contributing substantially to securing water quantity and quality (3, 4, 5). Of all waterways providing drinking water on the continental USA, 58% are temporary or headwater streams, and these contribute to the supply and quality of potable water for over one third of the total U.S. population (6). In addition, temporary waterways harbor important biodiversity (7, 8) and play key roles in global carbon and nutrient cycles (9). Even when dry, temporary watercourses provide pivotal ecosystem services such as the mediation of toxicants and future floods and the provision of habitat for unique biodiversity (10, 11). The recognition, by a comprehensive scientific review (12), of these many important services provided by temporary waterways led to the decision in 2015 to recodify the definition of Waters of the United States (WOTUS) to include temporary waters hydrologically connected to navigable waters. This provided protection to many temporary waterways under the US Clean Water Act directive for the USEPA to protect WOTUS, and was hailed as a well informed decision (3). However, the recodification is yet to be implemented because the legal process is incomplete, and now reversal of the decision is expected (1). We urge the USEPA to uphold their 2015 decision and to ratify the legal status and protection of temporary waterways.  This would provide a similar level of protection in the USA to that afforded temporary waterways in some other countries such as Australia (5). Failure to do so not only sets a global precedent, but importantly also risks costly (13) and potentially irreversible harm to the ecosystem services and uses supported by temporary waterways in the USA, including the provision of water supply and good water quality. References  1. Whyte, C. 2018. Six pollution policies gutted by Scott Pruitt – and what happens next. New Scientist Daily News, 9 July 2018. (https://www.newscientist.com/article/2173680-six-pollution-policies-gutted-by-scott-pruitt-and-what-happens-next/) 2. Nadeau, T. L., and M. C. Rains. 2007. Hydrological connectivity between headwater streams and downstream waters: How science can inform policy. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 43:118-133. 3.  Acuña, V., Datry, T., Marshall, J., Barceló, D., Dahm, C.N., Ginebreda, A., McGregor, G., Sabater, S., Tockner, K. and Palmer, M.A., 2014. Why should we care about temporary waterways? Science, 343(6175), pp.1080-1081. 4. Leigh, C., Boulton, A.J., Courtwright, J.L., Fritz, K., May, C.L., Walker, R.H. and Datry, T., 2016. Ecological research and management of intermittent rivers: an historical review and future directions. Freshwater Biology, 61(8), pp.1181-1199. 5. Datry, T., Bonada, N., Boulton, A., 2017, ‘Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams: Ecology and Management’ Academic Press, London. 6. Geographic information systems analysis of the surface drinking water provided by intermittent, ephemeral, and headwater streams in the U.S. https://www.epa.gov/cwa-404/geographic-information-systems-analysis-surface-drinking-water-provided-intermittent 7. Bogan, M.T., Boersma, K.S. and Lytle, D.A., 2013. Flow intermittency alters longitudinal patterns of invertebrate diversity and assemblage composition in an arid‐land stream network. Freshwater Biology, 58(5), pp.1016-1028. 8. Steward AL, Marshall JC, Sheldon F, Harch B, Choy S, Bunn SE and Tockner K (2011).  Terrestrial invertebrates of dry river beds are not simply subsets of riparian assemblages  Aquatic Sciences 73:551–566 9. Datry, T., et al. A global analysis of terrestrial plant litter dynamics in non-perennial waterways. Nature Geoscience (2018): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0134-4.  10. Datry, T., Boulton, A.J., Bonada, N., Fritz, K., Leigh, C., Sauquet, E., Tockner, K., Hugueny, B. and Dahm, C.N., 2018. Flow intermittence and ecosystem services in rivers of the Anthropocene. Journal of Applied Ecology, 55(1), pp.353-364. 11. Steward, A.L., von Schiller, D., Tockner, K., Marshall, J.C. & Bunn, S.E. 2012. When the river runs dry: human and ecological values of dry riverbeds. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 10: 202–209 https://doi.org/10.1890/110136 12. USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). 2015. Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Review and Synthesis of the Scientiﬁc Evidence. EPA/600/R-14/475F.Washington, D.C.: Ofﬁce of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 13. Economic Analysis of Proposed Revised Definition of Waters of the United States https://archive.epa.gov/epa/sites/production/files/2014-03/documents/wus_proposed_rule_economic_analysis.pdf   

http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/34415/1/11832_Stubbington.pdf

Protecting U.S. temporary waterways

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