The House Science Committee has obtained and released maps developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that depict water resources on both a national and state scale. The Science Committee learned that EPA had prepared these maps prior to their July 2014 hearing on the rule proposed by EPA and the U.S. Corps of Engineers (Corps) defining ‘waters of the United States’ (WOTUS). It has become clear that EPA had no plans to release the maps to Congress or the public. This is part of a disturbing trend of EPA tightening its grip on the information released to the public, press, and Congress about the Clean Water Act rulemaking.
The maps themselves are from the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) and show permanent streams, something less than all intermittent streams (i.e., streams that flow seasonally), and as little as 30 percent of ephemeral streams (i.e., streams that flow only in response to rainfall or snowmelt). It is important to understand that the maps do not show a “before and after” regulatory picture. Some of the features depicted on the maps are already WOTUS; many are not. The maps offer a conservative look at the linear water features that exist in each state. With the proposed rule including tributaries for the first time as WOTUS, and defining tributary as any feature with a bed, bank, and ordinary high water mark, these maps show many of the features that could become federal waters.
Many other features that would be jurisdictional post-rule do not appear on this map, like the networks of roadside, irrigation, and stormwater ditches that crisscrosses urban, suburban, and rural landscapes. The rule goes beyond what this map shows as well, including waters that are adjacent to jurisdictional waters, such as water features in the ill-defined floodplain and riparian areas. There is also a category of “other waters” that would be jurisdictional on a case-by-case basis wherever EPA determines a significant nexus to jurisdictional waters can be found.
For more information, please contact Scott Berry at (703) 837-5321 or berrys@agc.org.