The Supreme Court ruled last year that rivers that only flow in response to weather events—called ephemeral streams—do not fall under the protection of the Clean Water Act.
The Supreme Court ruled last year that rivers that only flow in response to weather events—called ephemeral streams—do not fall under the protection of the Clean Water Act. New research published in the journal Science, led by University of Massachusetts Amherst recent doctoral graduate Craig Brinkerhoff and co-authored by colleagues at Yale University, suggests that this now leaves many U.S. waterways vulnerable to pollution.
Consider the Connecticut River, says Colin Gleason, Armstrong Professor of civil and environmental engineering at UMass Amherst and an author on the paper. The Connecticut has rules regulating where and what kinds of sediments, nutrients and pollutants can be dumped into the river, “and if you now just go up into the hills and dump it in a dry gully… there’s every chance it ends up in the main stem of the Connecticut that you’ve worked so hard to protect once it rains,” he explains.
While perennial streams flow continually, an ephemeral stream does not contain groundwater, so these non-perennial streams only run when they fill up with rain.
The researchers set out to determine just how much water these sometimes-dry river beds contribute to a river system’s total output.
Read more at University of Massachusetts Amherst
Photo Credit: Hans via Pixabay
