|
 |
|
FY 1999 Accomplishments
under the
RECREATIONAL FISHERY RESOURCES CONSERVATION PLAN (E.O. 12962)
Highlights of 1999 Accomplishments
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in conjunction with our
state, local, and non-profit partners, supported recreational fisheries
and their aquatic habitats in 1999 through a broad array of projects,
programs, and initiatives. Virtually all of EPA's water-related activities
support aquatic habitat protection and restoration, and the recreational
fisheries that depend on this habitat. EPA is tasked with the protection
and management of watersheds, wetlands, oceans, and groundwater through
its statutory authority under the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water
Act, and many other laws and regulations. EPA is also actively engaged
in outreach and education, and the promotion of voluntary, stakeholder
driven processes to manage water resources. The vast majority of EPA's
efforts to improve aquatic resources are done in cooperation with our
state, tribal and local government; industry; and citizen partners. EPA
extends sincere appreciation to our partners for all their collaborative
efforts to support aquatic habitat protection and restoration, including
fisheries resources.
There were a number of very successful EPA funded projects that directly
supported recreational fisheries in 1999. Significant progress was achieved
on the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, and Delaware
Bay as over 600 hundred miles of river was opened to fish migration. The
removal of longstanding dams and the installation of fishways and fish
ladders provided access to historically important spawning areas for salmon,
trout, and the baitfish they depend on such as alewives and herring.
EPA's Superfund Office has also contributed directly to the restoration
of recreational fisheries as evidenced by the recovery of brown, brook,
and rainbow trout on the Eagle River in Colorado. Reducing the amount
of zinc entering the waterway from an underground mine has allowed the
water quality to improve to a level that now supports a "first rate fishery",
as expressed by "The American Angler." Though certainly not perfect, the
Eagle Mine cleanup has restored the river to a productive fishery. EPA
is also supporting the Eagle River Watershed Group to further several
watershed planning efforts to improve biological monitoring and ensure
the Eagle River remains healthy.
EPA's Office of Water, including all EPA Regions, led a multitude of
efforts described within that support the protection and restoration of
recreational fisheries, including continuing the development of the Total
Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) process by issuing a regulation currently in
final review and by managing the review process for over 500 new TMDL
plans submitted by the states. Watershed Restoration Action Strategies,
comprehensive plans to manage priority watersheds, have now been developed
by states and tribes for over 300 areas. Implementation of the plans will
be aided by an additional $100 million provided to the Agency to support
nonpoint source pollution control in priority areas. EPA also continued
its direct support of fisheries related local projects through a grant
to the Fish America Foundation. .
Specific Agency Accomplishments
The Agency has not adopted reporting mechanisms that separate improvements
to water quality and habitat for specific resources, such as a particular
fish species. Thus, many efforts that reduce pollution, increase awareness,
and restore degraded habitats are not included in this accomplishments
report. EPA applies its statutory authority and promotes voluntary action
broadly, with the ultimate goal of protecting our environment using an
ecosystem approach. This fact makes it difficult to report activities
that have only recreational fisheries benefits. However, all of the activities
mentioned herein are thought to have directly or indirectly contributed
to improved ecological health and benefited recreational fish species.
Data for this report was collected from EPA regional offices and from
program managers at headquarters. As requested, projects and programs
have been classified into one of the three categories; 1. Core measurable
agency objectives, 2. Additional measurable agency objectives, 3. Significant
non-measurable objectives.
Strategy 1: Conserve, enhance and restore recreational fisheries
habitats and fish stocks, emphasizing self-sustaining populations where
feasible.
A. Core Measurable Agency Outputs: EPA has funded and
provided technical assistance to hundreds of projects that conserve, enhance
and restore aquatic resources, including recreational fisheries. The following
statistics and projects are representative of our efforts, but reveal
only a small portion of the impact, as most projects do not provide exact
measures such as acres of habitat restored, or miles of river opened to
anadromous species.
- Fish Consumption Advisories: EPA published Fish Consumption Advisories
using data from 1998 in FY99. The highlights:47 states and several tribes
issued fish consumption advisories in 1998 due to harmful levels of
chemical contaminants in fish and wildlife.
- The total number of advisories issued by the states and tribes
in the U.S. has nearly doubled since 1993. 205 new advisories were
issues in 1998 resulting in a total of 2,506 for the nation (a 9%
increase over 1997).
- Nearly 99% of advisories can be attributed, at least partially,
to five major contaminants Mercury, PCBs, chlordane, dioxins, and
DDT. There are a total of 46 chemical contaminants for which advisories
have been issued. Advisories for Mercury, PCBs, and DDT rose in
1998, while those issued for chlordane and dioxins declined.
- Eleven states have issued "statewide" advisories, meaning that
all waters of a particular type (e.g., all lakes and/or rivers and/or
coastal areas) are under advisory.
- 15.8% of the nation's total lake acres and 6.8% of the nation's
total river miles are under fish consumption advisories
- 100% of the Great Lakes waters and their connecting waters and
a large portion of the nation's coastal waters (59%) are under fish
consumption advisories.
- Over 600 hundred miles of river opened to fish migration
- As an example of EPA's contribution to habitat restoration, EPA
Region I (New England) has applied approximately $100,000 from the
Exxon Valdez Settlement Fund to support four habitat restoration
projects in Connecticut. Three of the projects involved restoring
migratory fish passage on tributary streams to Long Island Sound,
and the other restoration of approximately 150 acres of tidal wetland
in New Haven, Connecticut. The three fish passage projects included
installation of a fishways on the Eightmile River in Lyme, CT, on
the Mill Brook in Old Lyme, and a third on Trading Cove Brook in
Norwich. These projects have allowed the passage of thousands of
alewives and blueback herring, and over 100 sea lamprey. Anadromous
fish had been blocked from their native spawning grounds for hundreds
of years due to the construction of dams. These projects all involved
multiple partners such as the CT DEP, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, local land trusts, and the towns themselves.
- Delaware Estuary The installation of two fish ladders will open
over 4 miles of the Cooper River to alewives, blueback herring and
American Eels. This critical spawning and nursery habitat is an
historically important area for the species affected. Additional
work funded by EPA will install fish ladders at a restrictive tide
gate opening another 8 miles of river.
- Chesapeake Bay The estimated miles opened to fish migration in
1999 were 521. Of those miles, 506 are accessible to anadromous
species. Other Bay projects have resulted in the restoration of
74 acres of riparian habitat, 8 stream miles, and over 500 additional
acres where improvements to wetland areas, stream stability, and
other habitats were implemented.
B. Additional Measurable Agency Outputs:
- Amount of habitat for which conditions have been measured (1998):
- 840,402 (23%) miles of rivers and steams surveyed
- 7.4 (44%) million acres of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs (excluding
Great Lakes) surveyed
- 26,687 (32%) square miles of estuaries surveyed
- 3,130 (5%) miles of ocean shoreline (excluding Alaska) in 1998
EPA provides financial assistance and technical guidance to the states
to undertake water quality monitoring of surface waters. The statistics
provided above are from EPA's National Water Quality Inventory: 1998
Report to Congress. They indicate the amount of surface water where
ambient conditions were monitored and assessed by the states in 1997
and 1998.
- State Revolving Fund: EPA continues to promote the use of State Revolving
Funds for important polluted runoff and habitat projects. Currently,
more than half of the states are collaborating with state conservation
offices, other state organizations, and local soil and water conservation
districts to target SRF funds to high priority polluted runoff and habitat
projects. These projects are often singled out due to the adverse impacts
of pollution habitat degradation on fisheries resources. Since inception
of the habitat oriented program, these states have funded thousands
of projects worth over $1 billion.
C. Significant Non-measurable Accomplishments:
- The Total Maximum Daily Loading (TMDL) Process:
The Clean Water Act (CWA) establishes a national goal of "fishable,
swimable" waters. There are still waters in the nation that do not
meet this goal, despite the fact that many pollution sources have
implemented nationally required levels of pollution control technology.
The CWA's Section 303(d) addresses these remaining waters by requiring
states to identify these waters and develop Total Maximum Daily Loads
(TMDLs) for them, with oversight from EPA. A TMDL allocates pollution
control responsibilities among pollution sources in a watershed and
is the basis for taking the actions needed to restore a waterbody.
An example of how to apply a TMDL might be in the control of excess
sediment, which causes loss of a beneficial use of a waterbody. If
standards, established to protect against the loss of a beneficial
use (e.g., fish spawning), are not met and, if the process causing
the problem (i.e., excess sedimentation) can be quantified, then it
may be appropriate to use the TMDL process to assess the adverse impacts
and potentially set controls on the problem activity. More than 500
new TMDLs were established in 1999, many using recreational fish species
as an ecological endpoint for monitoring. The number of TMDLs planned
over the next 15 years now exceeds 30,000. Examples of TMDLs established
in 1999 that will directly benefit recreational fisheries are outlined
below:
- Pe¤a Blanca Lake, Arizona, Mercury TMDL This TMDL was developed
to address fish tissue contamination by mercury in a lake that is
heavily used by recreational fishers. The TMDL analysis identified
a key ongoing mercury loading source (an abandoned mine mill facility)
and specified the loading reductions from that source needed to
enable Pe¤a Blanca Lake fish to recover to safe levels. Based
on the clean up levels for the mine mill site which were specified
in the draft TMDL, the US Forest Service carried out a remedial
action in September to remove contaminated mine tailings from the
site. As a result, the TMDL has been fully implemented. Analysis
shows that the recreational fishery should recover over the next
few years, as currently contaminated fish are caught or die off,
and as in-lake mercury is buried by clean sediments.
- Deep Creek, Montana - Deep Creek is a watershed recovery and spawning
habitat enhancement project. The primary goals of the Deep Creek
Project are to 1) promote the natural recovery of stream length,
channel stability, and riparian vegetation of Deep Creek and to
reduce sediment delivery from eroding banks, 2) enhance trout spawning
success in Deep Creek, and 3) provide information to landowners
on Deep Creek on low cost erosion control measures. As part of the
broader project, a TMDL is being developed focused on reducing fine
sediment loadings and increasing trout recruitment. The Broadwater
Conservation District, in cooperation with area landowners and fishery
interests, is sponsoring the funding for projects to restore water
quality, stream stability, and trout reproduction in an important
fish spawning tributary to the Missouri River.
- Water Quality Standards (WQSs):
State and tribal WQSs represent water quality goals for each waterbody
and establish the regulatory basis for water quality-based controls,
such as the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System point
source permits, necessary to protect ecological health. In 1999, EPA
issued new guidance to states and tribes for assessing the biological
health of their lakes and reservoirs, and introduced new criteria
for the control of nutrients and disease- causing microorganisms.
An example of the guidance in use follows:
- Use attainment studies were performed on two streams in 1999 by
Region VII staff in conjunction with nutrient criteria development.
The studies sampled both numbers and species of fish in addition
to fish flesh analyses for the Marmaton River and Little Soldier
Creek on the Prairie Band of the Potawatomi Reservation in Kansas.
Findings of the study are still in preparation, but analysis of
numbers of fish species/numbers of individual fishes for that ecoregion
will be used to aid sport fishery management. Fisheries management
plans will in turn assist designation and implementation of future
management practices, non-point source pollution projects, and BMPs
in these watersheds.
- Research to Protect Our Oceans and Coasts: EPA manages the Ocean
Survey Vessel (O.S.V.) Anderson, a sophisticated research vessel
designed to study the effects of marine pollution on marine life,
water quality, and coral reefs. In 1999 the Anderson made many voyages
that will benefit recreational fisheries including an analysis of
contaminated sediments in NY/NJ Harbor, disease assessment and overall
health assessments of coral reefs in the Florida Keys National Park
Sanctuary, artificial reef assessment in Delaware Bay, and the impacts
of sewage outfalls at Rehobeth and Bethany, Delaware and Ocean City,
Maryland.
- Highlights from EPA Regional Offices:
- EPA Region II, Division of Environmental Science and Assessment,
has assisted the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
in providing grant money for shellfish tissue analyses, and in collecting
and analyzing water quality samples to update the classification
of New Jersey's coastal waters for shellfish harvest. These classifications
are performed to maintain compliance with the National Shellfish
Sanitation Program, and to maintain the State's excellent record
of safe shellfish harvest. For the 2000 Shellfish Harvest Classification,
3,629 acres have been upgraded to approved status, 78 acres have
been upgraded to seasonal status, and only 139 acres were downgraded
to prohibited. This marks 20 years of net increases of improvements
to shellfish harvest classifications.
- Region V Has spent millions of dollars on BMP installations, wetland
restoration, riparian buffer plantings and stream bank stabilization
that will directly benefit recreational fisheries. Significant projects
included work on the East Branch of DuPage River in Illinois, Pigeon
Creek, Bear Creek, Manistee River, and Homer Lake in Michigan, the
Redwood River in Minnesota, and Little Beaver Creek in Ohio.
- The State of New Mexico received FY99 funding under EPA's nonpoint
source program (319 program) to perform a number of stream channel,
stream bank, and riparian restoration projects. These projects (13
in FY99, totaling $1,083,734 in Federal funds) are, among other
things, intended to directly restore channel stability and water
quality, as well as to directly or indirectly improve habitat diversity
and fishery resources, in many of the State's waters. Most of these
projects were initiated in response to findings that demonstrated
the fishery uses, as defined in the State's water quality standards,
were not being supported
- Bank Stabilization through Stream Restoration Project A large
number of streams in Oklahoma are not meeting their assigned beneficial
uses because of sedimentation. The source of the sediment in many
of these waterbodies is from bank erosion. The State of Oklahoma
received 319 funds from EPA to demonstrate that Rosgen methods for
arresting bank erosion can be used while simultaneously improving
aquatic habitat and water quality. Three project sites were selected
as demonstration sites. As of 1999, implementation on Lost Creek
in Moore, Oklahoma and Chilocco Creek in Kay County, Oklahoma had
been completed and proved to be very successful. The fishery on
Lost Creek, in particular, has been re-established as evidenced
by the return of sunfish to the stream, among other species.
- EPA Region VII, in conjunction with multiple partners, has supported
the identification of 105 trout streams totaling 307 miles in length
in Iowa. Of these 105 streams, 16 have been documented with consistent
natural reproduction of trout at a level great enough to sustain
a viable population without additional stocking of that species.
Fifteen of these streams have natural reproduction of brown trout,
and one stream has natural reproduction of brook trout.
- Region VII awarded a 1999 State Wetland Development Grant for
$267,334 to the Missouri Department of Conservation to study the
effects of sand and gravel dredging on wetland and stream habitats.
They intend to document the specific effects on the aquatic ecosystem
that Corps general permit Section 404 dredging activities have on
fishery habitat when riparian corridors and in-stream wetlands are
destroyed. Documentation will enable the state to better protect
fisheries resources.
- EPA, along with many other federal and state agencies and landowners,
have restored some of the 500,000 acres of habitat lost to channelization
on the Missouri River. A February 9, 2000 U.S. Fish and Wildlife
press release hailed "The first known reproduction of the pallid
sturgeon in the Lower Missouri River in at least the last 50 years
has been confirmed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists,
who point to the startling discovery as evidence that the fish,
whose ancestors date to the days of the dinosaurs, may have a better
chance at recovery than previously believed ", proving that the
combined efforts of multiple stakeholders can produce dramatic results.
Eventual full recovery could mean that the sturgeon would be considered
for removal from the endangered species list and would again be
available to sportfishing enthusiasts.
- In EPA Region X, the Hoonah Ranger District provides a good example
of how forest road reconstruction and deconstruction can yield significant
environmental results. In 1998, EPA gave the District $5K to verify,
quantify and document fish passage problems at 32 stream crossing
culverts. In 1999, the District reported 13 anadromous fish blockages
and 17 resident fish blockages to EPA. The District also estimated
that 3.2 km of anadromous habitat and 4.7 km of resident habitat
was inaccessible due to these improperly designed or installed culverts.
Using authority under Section 404(f), EPA applied informal regulatory
pressure to assure voluntary compliance from the District. This
combination of financial support and compliance assistance put the
District in a strong position to compete for Capital Improvement
Project funds. The District received approximately $300K and has
replaced 19 culverts and removed 6 culverts to date. Next year,
they will replace four more culverts and will replace the last culvert
with a bridge. When completed in 2000, this project will result
in the restoration of access to roughly 8 km of quality fish habitat.
Goal 2: Promote Facilities and Access
EPA's mission does not include provisions for the construction of facilities
or access points specifically for recreational fisheries.
Goal 3: Promote public education and support for aquatic resource
conservation
A. Core Measurable Agency Outputs:
The following statistics provide measurable evidence of the educational
impact of EPA's activities related to aquatic resource conservation.
- Watershed Academy - EPA has become a leader in the realm of interactive
science education using the internet. Currently EPA's watershed academy
contains over 15 modules covering all aspects of the science and policy
necessary to effectively protect and restore our watersheds. Modules
range from basic stream and river ecology to advanced geomorphology
to organization and management lessons learned in the development of
watershed protection approaches. A formal certification program is expected
to get underway in 2000, but in the meantime a "pilot program certification"
has been developed and is currently being used in environmental education
by leading universities, such as the University of Wisconsin and the
University of Washington. Thousands of active users visit the watershed
academy every month.
- In 1999 average monthly visits to the Office of Wetlands, Oceans,
and Watersheds website exceeded 1,000,000.
- Over 1,000 visits to the EPA Angler's website occurred 1999. A
separate icon on the Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds
homepage was created in September 1999 for direct access to the
Angler's website, which provides information on aquatic resource
education and links to related EPA programs.
- Significant increases in the use of the new real time fish consumption
and beach advisories internet-based tools was recognized.
B. Additional Measurable Agency Outputs:
Thousands of individuals educated on aquatic resources protection through
distribution of EPA publications.
A. Significant Non-measurable Accomplishments:
- In 1993, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in New Hampshire created
an interdisciplinary middle school curriculum titled Adopt-A-Salmon
Family that was introduced into two schools. The curriculum allowed
teachers and students an adventure into the study of watershed issues
as well as the excitement of rearing and releasing Atlantic Salmon.
The curriculum is now being used in over 100 schools in the Northeastern
states. In 1999, the Boquet River Association, in Elizabethtown, N.Y.,
received an EPA Environmental Education grant to expand these curricular
materials to include Landlocked Atlantic Salmon, Brook Trout, land use
history and geomorphology of the Adirondack and Lake Champlain region,
and a greater emphasis upon habitat as the limiting factor for healthy
fisheries in many of the nation's streams and rivers. The new materials
are being tested in seven public middle schools.
- Regional Watershed Roundtables and the National Watershed Forum In
1999, EPA led an interagency effort to bring together local stakeholders
in regional forums to discuss ways to improve watershed restoration
and protection approaches. Some roundtables were competed last year,
with the remainder scheduled for 2000 culminating in a National Watershed
Forum in 2001.
- Catalog of Federal Funding Sources for Watershed Protection EPA updated
the very popular funding sources document that provides both governmental
and private funding sources for watershed related projects. Over 10,000
copies have been printed and a web enabled version is available at:
http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/wacademy/fund.html
- Region VII awarded 19 grants in 1999 under Section 6 of the National
Environmental Education Act of 1990. Two projects had direct linkages
to protecting recreational fisheries. The Scenic Rivers Stream Team
Association provided training and educational material to middle school
teachers in the 45 school districts in the watershed of the Current
and Eleven Point Rivers, MO, two of the federally designated wild and
scenic rivers in the region. In another grant, six schools in Kansas
and Nebraska gathered baseline data to understand the effects of runoff
to the fishery in Enders reservoir.
Goal 4: Work collaboratively with State and willing Tribal management
partners, industry, anglers, and conservation groups to advance aquatic
resource conservation, enhance recreational fishing opportunities, utilize
cost-share programs, and assist private landowners with aquatic resource
conservation.
A. Core Measurable Agency Outputs:
- Nearly all of EPA's aquatic habitat protection efforts focus on employing
holistic, integrative watershed approaches that involve a multitude
of stakeholder groups. The following partnerships are targeted specifically
at advancing aquatic resource conservation with recreational fisheries
in mind.
- Fish America Foundation Grant - EPA processed a grant application
for $20,000 to the Fish America Foundation to promote aquatic resource
protection, increase environmental education and restore recreational
fisheries. It is expected that EPA funds will be matched (in 2000)
by over $40,000 from private sources and the American Sportfishing
Association. Projects will included an investigation of the benefits
of in-stream flow protection and habitat restoration including riparian
replantings.
- EPA Region VII continued partnership in FY99 with the Missouri
Department of Natural Resources on projects involving Table Rock
Lake. One project with the City of Springfield, MO is designed to
study storm water from that city. A 319 grant for $213,000 was made
in 1999 for a two year study to cover urban storm water runoff quality
to Wilson Creek and the James River. The study will collect evidence
of biological impairment in these streams including alterations
to the fish and aquatic invertebrate communities and excessive benthic
algal growth. In addition, it will identify nutrients from urban
nonpoint sources that are contributing to eutrophication of Table
Rock Lake
B. Additional Measurable Agency Outputs:
Nothing to Report
C. Significant Non-measurable Accomplishments:
- Clean Water Action Plan: One of the most significant efforts underway
at EPA is the implementation of the President's Clean Water Action Plan.
This interagency plan is a comprehensive initiative focusing resources
on improvements to ecosystems and human health across a broad range
of fisheries related natural systems including watersheds, wetlands,
shellfish beds and beaches. Specific items related to the protection
of recreational fisheries include efforts to re-energize the watershed
approach and direct resources to priority watersheds based on local
needs, implementation of Watershed Restoration Action Strategies in
those priority watersheds, and Watershed Assistance Grants, which promote
the watershed approach by educating locally-led groups on the techniques,
processes, and skills necessary to successfully implement positive changes.
In 1999, over 300 Watershed Restoration Action Strategies were developed
and $500,000 was provided to over 30 local groups to build organizational
capacity. EPA is partnering extensively with other federal agencies,
tribes, states and non-profits to increase the efficiency of activities
focused on improving the nation's water resources.
- Five Star Wetlands Grants - EPA continued its highly successful "Five
Star" Wetlands Program, providing $500,000 in grants dedicated to the
restoration of wetland areas. These areas are crucial as nurseries for
saltwater recreational fisheries, and often protective barriers to lakes
and rivers harboring freshwater species of concern.
- National Estuary Programs: EPA's National Estuary Program (NEP) is
one of our premier partnerships with local communities. There are currently
28 estuaries in the program. EPA administers the NEP, but program decisions
and activities are carried out by a team or teams of local government
officials, private citizens, and representatives from other federal
agencies, academic institutions, industry, and estuary user-groups.
The program focuses not just on improving water quality in an estuary,
but on maintaining the integrity of the whole system -- its chemical,
physical, and biological properties, as well as its economic, recreational,
and aesthetic values. These estuaries' stakeholders work together to
identify problems, develop specific actions to address those problems,
and create a formal management plan to restore and protect the estuary.
All NEPs have goals set to restore and protect aquatic resources, primarily
focused on the valuable recreational fisheries resources of the estuaries.
- Highlights from EPA Regional Offices:
- EPA Region VII is working to finish a collaborative Regional Environmental
Monitoring and Assessment Program project that measures the statewide
health of fisheries in Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. State personnel
from the state environmental agencies and EPA Region VII staff collected
fish tissue, fish community, physical habitat, water quality, and
sediment quality data from over 220 random sites in the three chosen
states, in order to quantify with statistical certainty, the status
of the fishery in Region VII
- Arkansas River, Colorado - The ongoing work in Lake County, Colorado
at the California Gulch National Priority List (I.e., Superfund
site) site has resulted in significant improvement of the Upper
Arkansas River fisheries. Since two water treatment plants went
online in 1992, the fish populations have improved each year. Also,
over the last few years EPA and the mining companies have begun
remediating the source areas in the mining district thereby improving
water quality. Previously stunted brown trout are now growing up
to 14 inches in the treated river segments. Last year, Lake County
and the Arkansas River Headwaters State Park acquired about 5 miles
of the river front; the area is now open to public access. Both
the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News have run feature stories
on the great fishing in the 5-mile reach.
- Clear Creek - The fishery in Clear Creek has been impacted by
historic gold mining. Approximately 23 properties within the watershed
are being cleaned up using Superfund monies, with the purpose of
returning the water quality to one that can support fish. In conjunction
with the Superfund cleanup, EPA has awarded Regional Geographic
Initiative (RGI) grant dollars to the City of Idaho Springs to improve
stream habitat through Idaho Springs. In anticipation of an improved
fishery, Idaho Springs has built a handicapped accessible fishing
pier.
- Eagle Mine Superfund Site - The Eagle Mine was a large underground
zinc mine located in a scenic canyon near Minturn, Colorado (a few
miles from Vail, CO). Acid discharge from the mine, snowmelt and
rainfall that penetrated the various waste piles, and polluted ground
water all put a significant load of metals into the river. Before
the Superfund cleanup began to take effect, dissolved zinc values
as high as 4000ug/l were observed in the river below the mine. In
1999 zinc levels were recorded at 309 ug/l. An article in a 1995
edition of "The American Angler" states that the Eagle River has
gone "from a Superfund site to a first-rate fishery." The same article
points out that "as water quality has improved, so have fish populations
. . . there were dramatic increases in brown and brook trout numbers,
and many rainbows have flourished where none had previously been
found . . . the bugs are back too." Though certainly not perfect,
the Eagle Mine cleanup has restored the river to a productive fishery.
EPA is also supporting the Eagle River Watershed Group to further
several watershed planning efforts.
- South Platte Fishery - As a result of an EPA Memorandum of Understanding,
six agencies are working together to encourage self-sustaining fish
populations on the South Platte River. This collaborative effort
includes Region VIII EPA, Colorado Department of Wildlife, Colorado
Department of Health and Environment, Colorado State University,
the Bureau of Reclamation and Metro Wastewater Reclamation District.
These partners are investigating means of conserving and enhancing
fish populations through the construction of a fish screening facility
on the South Platte River.
- Deer Creek, Wyoming - In 1991 and 1996, Emulsified Asphalt, Inc.
(Emulsified) and/or their contractor, Fisher Sand & Gravel,
Inc., illegally discharged dredged and fill material into Deer Creek
near Glenrock, Wyoming. The materials caused the loss of wetland
and riparian habitat, adversely affected channel stability and floodplain
functions, and destroyed or degraded trout habitat adjoining and
downstream of the site. Deer Creek is classified by the Wyoming
Game and Fish Department as Class 3 waters for trout, a classification
defined as "important trout waters supporting fisheries of regional
importance within the State." After years of negotiations and efforts
to get the violators to restore the area, Emulsified agreed to perform
restoration work approved by EPA Region VIII. Emulsified completed
the restoration work in 1999. The work resulted in the restoration
of an approximate 1,200-foot section of Deer Creek and its floodplain,
which included the removal of a berm, stabilization of the stream
bank, and restoration of 3.1 acres of riparian floodplain, of which
1.6 was wetlands. Channel and floodplain functions have been restored,
thus restoring trout habitat that had been destroyed or degraded
by the illegal work.
|
