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Back to Subjects - Environmental Science

Wetlands

Wetlands "Wetlands" is the collective term for marshes, swamps, bogs, and similar areas. Wetlands are found in flat vegetated areas, in depressions on the landscape, and between water and dry land along the edges of streams, rivers, lakes, and coastlines. Wetland areas can be found in nearly every county and climatic zone in the United States. Inland wetlands receive water from precipitation, ground water and/or surface water. Coastal and estuarine wetlands receive water from precipitation, surface water, tides, and/or ground water. Surface water sources include runoff and stormwater. Since the 1600s, more than half of the original wetlands in the lower 48 states have been destroyed. Twenty two states have lost at least 50 percent of their original wetlands. Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Ohio have lost more than 80 percent of their original wetlands and California and Iowa have lost nearly ninety-nine (99 percent) percent. Since the 1970s, the most extensive losses of wetlands have occurred in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Wetlands have been drained and converted to farmland, filled for housing developments and industrial facilities, and used as receptacles for waste. Human activities continue to adversely affect wetland ecosystems. More recently, society has begun to understand the functions of wetlands and the values humans obtain from them. Wetlands help regulate water levels within watersheds; improve water quality; reduce flood and storm damages; provide important fish and wildlife habitat; and support hunting, fishing, and other recreational activities. Wetlands are important features in watershed management. The characteristics of wetlands are a good reason to regulate and control the destruction of them. The use of regulation to protect wetlands as integral and essential parts of the nation's waters began formally in 1972 through the Clean Water Act (also known as the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended). Section 404 of the Clean Water Act establishes the federal authority to regulate activities in wetlands. Under Section 404, jointly administered by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the discharge of material into waters of the United States, including wetlands, requires a permit from the Corps based on regulations developed in conjunction with EPA (Section 404(b)(1) guidelines). Failure to obtain a permit or comply with the terms of a permit can result in civil and/or criminal penalties. Other federal regulations and guidelines have been issued which further the goal of wetlands protection and improved wetlands management. Many state and local governments have also enacted regulations and ordinances protecting wetlands. One cause of wetland depletion are the construction of roads and bridges across wetlands since wetlands have low land value. It is often considered to be more cost effective to build roads or bridges across wetlands than around them (Winter 1988). Roads can impound a wetland, even if culverts are used. Such inadvertent impoundment and hydrologic alteration can change the functions of the wetland (Winter 1988). Road and bridge construction activities can increase sediment loading to wetlands (Mitsch and Gosselink 1993). Roads can also disrupt habitat continuity, driving out more sensitive, interior species, and providing habitat for hardier opportunistic edge and non-native species. Roads can impede movement of certain species or result in increased mortality for animals crossing them. Borrow pits (used to provide fill for road construction) that are adjacent to wetlands can degrade water quality through sedimentation and increase turbidity in the wetland (Irwin 1994). The maintenance and use of roads contribute many chemicals into the surrounding wetlands. Rock salt used for deicing roads can damage or kill vegetation and aquatic life (Zentner 1994). Herbicides, soil stabilizers, and dust palliatives used along roadways can damage wetland plants and the chemicals may concentrate in aquatic life or cause mortality (USEPA 1993a). Runoff from bridges can increase loadings of hydrocarbons, heavy metals, toxic substances, and deicing chemicals directly into wetlands (USEPA 1993a). Bridge maintenance may contribute lead, rust (iron), and the chemicals from paint, solvents, abrasives, and cleaners directly into wetlands below. Innovative methods of constructing roads and bridges, and end-state (master) planning that reduces the need for new roads, can reduce the impacts of urbanization on wetlands. Marina construction and dredging activities can contribute suspended sediments into waters adjacent to wetlands. Intense boating activity can also increase turbidity and degradation of wetlands. Wetlands can be adversely affected by pollutants released from boats and marinas. Pollutants include: hydrocarbons, heavy metals, toxic chemicals from paints, cleaners, and solvents (USEPA 1993a). Dumping of wastes from fish cleaning and discharge of human waste from marinas and boats can increase the amount of nutrients and organic matter in a wetland. The increased organic matter and nutrients can lead to eutrophication. Another cause of wetland depletion are industry. Adverse effects of industry on wetlands can include: reduction of wetland acreage, alteration of wetland hydrology due to industrial water intake and discharge, water temperature increases, point and non-point source pollutant inputs, pH changes as a result of discharges, and atmospheric deposition. Saline water discharges, hydrocarbon contamination, and radionuclide accumulation from oil and gas production can significantly degrade coastal wetlands (Rayle and Mulino 1992). Most petroleum hydrocarbon inputs into coastal wetlands are either from coastal oil industry activities, from oil spills at sea, from runoff, or from upstream releases (Kennish 1992). Oil can alter reproduction, growth, and behavior of wetland organisms, and can result in mortality. Plants suffocate when oil blocks their stomata (Dibner 1978). Bibliography:

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