Introduction

Seeking sustainable solutions to the complex problems facing our Nation's drinking water and water resources is vital to supporting healthy humans, ecosystems, and economies.

EPA’s safe and sustainable water resources research provides the science and innovative technologies the Agency—and the Nation—need to maintain drinking water sources and systems, as well as to protect the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of our water. EPA scientists and engineers help provide sustainable water infrastructure, deliver safe drinking water, manage stormwater, and remove and treat wastewater, allowing its sustainable and safe reuse.

This section highlights some of the many accomplishments that EPA scientists and researchers made in 2010 to advance safe and sustainable water resources, including: the launch of a scientific program to explore the potential impacts of a stimulation method used to harvest natural gas known as hydraulic fracturing, the release of two major reports on the environmental impacts of mountaintop mining, the publication of a manual (PDF) (153 pp, 4.8MB, About PDF) to help localities protect coral reefs, a major update to a widely used tool for helping protect the nation's rivers and streams, and much more.

Hydraulic Fracturing: Drilling for Answers

At the request of the U.S. Congress, EPA researchers prepared to lead an extensive scientific evaluation of the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources.

A convergence of factors, including rising energy prices, the national security benefits of developing new domestic energy supplies, and an economic downturn—have sparked great interest in expanding natural gas development. What’s more, natural gas burns cleaner and emits less greenhouse gas per unit of energy than other fossil fuels.

With those factors already in place, a stimulation process known as hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as "fracking," has made it possible and profitable to unlock natural gas reserves from underground geologic formations that were previously considered economically unfeasible for natural gas development.

Hydraulic fracturing creates or enlarges cracks in subterranean rock formations. Crews send drilling shafts into the ground, and then inject a mixture of water (millions of gallons per well), chemicals and “proppants” (typically sand, or other small particles, to hold open the cracks) into the shaft at high pressure. The injected fluid cracks or enlarges fissures in the rock, allowing natural gas to flow into the well and up to the surface.

The practice of hydraulic fracturing, however, has raised concerns about its potential impact on the environment and human health, particularly on water quality and drinking water. Important questions about hydraulic fracturing include:

• What impact does removing the large amounts of water needed for high-pressure drilling have on a watershed and/or an aquifer?
• What potential impacts do associated activities and materials—such as chemicals and drilling muds, large amounts of wastewater, and fractured underground rock—have on water quality and underground drinking water supplies?
  

In 2010, the U.S. Congress requested that EPA formulate a plan to provide the science needed to answer these and other questions related to hydraulic fracturing.

To meet that request, EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) began to design a hydraulic fracturing research study. EPA scientists, engineers, and science policy experts worked together to define the most pertinent research questions, identify gaps in existing data, and illuminate research priorities. They also built a robust process to incorporate stakeholder input, including public meetings in locations close to, or in communities potentially impacted by, hydraulic fracturing activities.

To elicit ideas and suggestions from EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB), the Agency’s ORD produced the document, Scoping Materials for Initial Design of EPA Research Study on Potential Relationships Between Hydraulic Fracturing and Drinking Water Resources (PDF) (12 pp, 111K, About PDF). The SAB is an independent, external Federal advisory committee called upon to provide expert council to the Agency regarding technical matters.

The SAB advised EPA on the scope of a hydraulic fracturing study, identified key research questions, and provided input for making stakeholder involvement an integral component of the research program.

EPA is now implementing the hydraulic fracturing study plan.

EPA Advances Science of Mountaintop Mining Impacts

EPA researchers release two science 2010 reports to support the Agency's new guidance for mountaintop mining.

On April 1, 2010, EPA announced a set of actions the Agency was taking to further clarify and strengthen environmental permitting requirements for Appalachian mountaintop removal and other surface coal mining projects.

EPA issues permits for such actions in coordination with other Federal and state regulatory agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers.

The scientific underpinning for the new guidance was led by EPA research outlined in two reports released for public comment and submitted for peer review by the EPA Science Advisory Board in 2010:

• The Effects of Mountaintop Mines and Valley Fills on Aquatic Ecosystems of the Central Appalachian Coalfields
• A Field-based Aquatic Life Benchmark for Conductivity in Central Appalachian Streams.

Mountaintop mining is a form of surface coal mining in which the natural vegetation from the upper topography of a mountain is removed, and then heavy equipment and explosives are used to level the upper sections to expose seams of coal. The sections of the mountain that are removed (called "overburden") to access the coal are pushed into the adjacent valleys for disposal.

The new guidelines clarified actions that EPA was implementing to protect Appalachian ecosystems in accordance with its mandate to uphold and enforce the Clean Water Act.
The Effects of Mountaintop Mines and Valley Fills on Aquatic Ecosystems of the Central Appalachian Coalfields provides a state-of-the-science assessment on the ecological impacts of mountaintop mining and valley fill operations. EPA researchers identified and reviewed some 277 citations — including books, conference proceedings, journal articles, reports, theses/dissertations, and other sources — to present a single-volume assessment of the latest science available on the aquatic impacts associated with mountaintop mining.

The analysis identifies five key impacts directly related to mountaintop mining and valley fill:

1. Springs, intermittent streams, and small perennial streams are permanently lost with the removal of the mountaintop and from burial under fill.
2. Concentrations of major chemical ions are persistently elevated downstream.
3. Degraded water quality reaches levels that are acutely lethal to standard laboratory test organisms.
4. Selenium concentrations are elevated, reaching concentrations that have caused toxic effects in fish and birds.
5. Macroinvertebrate and fish communities are consistently and significantly degraded.
   

The second report, A Field-Based Aquatic Life Benchmark for Conductivity in Central Appalachian Streams, provides the scientific basis for using a field-data-derived, conductivity-based measurement as the benchmark for water quality to protect aquatic organisms living in Appalachian surface waters.

Conductivity is a measure of the level of salinity (salt) in the water. Because mountaintop mining operations can raise the salinity levels of nearby streams, measuring it provides an indication of the impacts on water quality by those operations. EPA scientists conducted more than 2,000 field samples to derive a conductivity benchmark that protects 95 percent of the genera (sets of similar and closely related species) of aquatic organisms living in streams in central Appalachia.

Key findings of the report include:

• Concentrations of salts as measured by conductivity are, on average, 10 times higher downstream of mountaintop mines and valley fills than in un-mined watersheds. 
• The increased levels of salts disrupt the life cycle of freshwater aquatic organisms, and some cannot live in these waters. Water with high salt concentrations downstream of mountaintop mines and valley fills is toxic to stream organisms. 
• There are higher levels of the chemical selenium downstream of mining sites.  Selenium exceeded the level established by EPA to protect aquatic life at more than one-half of the sites surveyed downstream of mountaintop mines and valley fills.
• By plotting the conductivity levels at which organisms are no longer observed in streams, EPA can determine a level of conductivity that results in their loss.  
• A conductivity benchmark (300 microSiemens per centimeter) that protects 95 percent of the genera of aquatic organisms living in streams in central Appalachia.

The two reports were produced to provide the best available science on the environmental impact of mountaintop mining. “We will continue to work with all stakeholders to find a way forward that follows the science and the law,” said Administrator Jackson.

Sustaining a National Treasure: EPA Released Manual to Help Protect Coral Reefs

EPA researchers produced a comprehensive guide on how to use Clean Water Act biological criteria to enhance coral reef protection.

Coral reefs are the largest living structures on the planet and have greater biodiversity than rainforests. They also are one of the most threatened marine ecosystems. Coral reefs are sensitive environments because of their highly specific requirements for temperature, salinity, oxygen, light, and nutrients. Pollution, disease, climate change, physical contact, and habitat destruction threaten these fragile ecosystems. 

The President’s Ocean Action Plan (2004) required EPA to develop the tools and knowledge necessary to protect coral reefs from land-based pollution using coral reef biological criteria, a tool to protect biological integrity under the authority of the Clean Water Act. This became the motivation behind the 2010 EPA publication, Coral Reef Biological Criteria:  Using the Clean Water Act to Protect a National Treasure (PDF) (153 pp, 4.8MB, About PDF). 

The publication was produced to provide information on the biological health of reefs to coral reef managers and other stakeholders, including residents living near reefs, tourists, fishermen, marine and land-based industries, conservation and environmental groups, research organizations, and educational institutions. It serves as a comprehensive guide on how to use the Clean Water Act and biological criteria to enhance coral reef protection efforts. The manual walks coral reef managers through the steps they should take to protect reefs and links back to what they already are doing. 

A year in the making, the manual compiles an array of research performed by EPA scientists, research that is continuing to better facilitate development and implementation of coral reef biocriteria by geographic jurisdictions.

The research team that developed Coral Reef Biological Criteria:  Using the Clean Water Act to Protect a National Treasure (PDF) (153 pp, 4.8MB, About PDF) worked closely with EPA’s Office of Water, working off the Agency’s Ocean Survey Vessel BOLD to complete many of the reef assessments required to develop biocriteria approaches.

To further the Agency's efforts to protect coral reefs, EPA marine biologists and other researchers are continuing their work. Current efforts include research divers assessing the condition of reef corals, fish, sponges, and benthic invertebrates in the waters of the Caribbean Sea, surrounding Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This work will help to identify organisms and establish measurement criteria that are responsive to human activities or disturbances in the watersheds that drain into the waters containing reefs. Previous surveys have supported approaches to regional condition reporting for coral reefs, which have a patchy distribution.

Coral reefs have declined as much as 20 percent over last 40 years and maybe as much as 80 percent in the Caribbean Sea. They are a national treasure and a vital ecosystem to protect.  EPA’s 2010 report and the research to develop biocriteria to help protect reefs is a promising development in protecting these national treasures.

Updated On-line Resource Helps Protect Waterways

EPA researchers update tool that helps scientists from states and tribes find out what's harming plant and animal life in streams, rivers, and wetlands.

What’s ailing your stream? CADDIS can help you find out. CADDIS is an EPA Web site developed to help scientists and engineers conduct cause and effect assessments in aquatic systems. The online application uses EPA’s Stressor Identification (SI) process, supporting information, and other assessment tools to help scientists systematically evaluate the causes of harm to plants and animals in aquatic habitats. In some instances, the process produces a clear-cut answer. In other cases, it points to several possible explanations and suggests additional tests that can narrow down the possibilities.

Scientists sample the insects and other tiny creatures that live in a body of water as one way of evaluating its health. The kinds of creatures that live in healthy environments are different from those that live in troubled areas, so these counts serve as an indicator of whether or not all is well.

A new, enhanced version of CADDIS was released in September 2010. This release contains new content in each part of the site, and has been reorganized into five volumes, or topic areas:

• Volume 1:  Stressor Identification—includes a new causal assessment background section, providing information on the CADDIS causal approach, causal concepts, and causal history.
• Volume 2: Sources, Stressors & Responses—includes new stressor modules for ammonia, herbicides, insecticides, pH (low and high), and physical habitat, as well as a new source module for urbanization.
• Volume 3: Examples & Applications (Examples, Databases)—includes new analytical examples, illustrating the use of different data analysis methods; provides new case studies, summarizing completed causal assessments; and provides a summary of how different states have used causal assessment techniques in their systems.
• Volume 4: Data Analysis (Analyzing Data)—includes new information on selecting an analytical approach, basic principles and issues, exploratory data analysis, basic analyses, and advanced analyses.
• Volume 5: Causal Databases (Candidate Causes, Databases)—provides an expanded Interactive Conceptual Diagram application that allows users to view, create, and collaborate on conceptual diagrams, as well as use those diagrams to access and link supporting literature.

Examples of improvements include the new CADDIS module on urbanization, which focuses on a source of impairment rather than a specific stressor. It provides background information on urbanization in streams and presents scenarios that investigators should consider if they suspect that urban development is significantly affecting stream quality. The update provides case studies that walk users through the assessments that different states have performed, and an interactive tool for building conceptual diagrams and linking these diagrams to evidence published by other researchers.
CADDIS helps state agencies improve the condition of streams and other bodies of water by helping them pinpoint the causes of problems so that remedial actions can be targeted where they will do the most good. By providing expanded guidance and resources, the 2010 release of CADDIS will enable watershed managers to better protect the health of our Nation’s waters.

Visit the CADDIS Web site at www.epa.gov/caddis.

Safe and Sustainable Water Resources

2010 Accomplishments – In Brief

EPA Christens New Great Lakes Research Vessel (RV)

On August 6, 2010, EPA Assistant Administrator for Research and Development, Dr. Paul Anastas, joined Congressman Jim Oberstar in the christening of the Lake Explorer II, a new vessel to support EPA research in the Great Lakes Area.

The vessel was commissioned as the RV Lake Explorer II to support EPA research in the Great Lakes—a vast region with more than 10,000 miles of shoreline. The Great Lakes are the largest surface freshwater system on earth, and provide water for drinking, transportation, power, recreation, and many other uses.

The Lake Explorer II will be used to conduct applied and exploratory research on environmental stressors affecting water quality and the biological integrity of the lakes. Stresses on the lakes include toxic and nutrient pollution, invasive species, habitat degradation, air pollution, and runoff from farm chemicals on agricultural lands.

Modeling Tool Helps Beach Managers Protect Swimmers’ Health

Every year, thousands of Americans swim at recreational beaches. When water is polluted, swimmers can become ill from exposure to waterborne pathogens. To reduce the number of illnesses, beach managers needed quicker ways to determine when beaches are unsafe for swimming and should be closed.

During 2010, EPA scientists developed two important tools to protect beachgoers:

• “Virtual Beach,” a mathematical modeling tool, to help beach managers predict concentrations of Escherichia coli, Enterococcus, and other indicators of waterborne pathogens at beaches. The tool uses local data such as wave height, water temperature, and rainfall to develop a model that can forecast microbial concentrations 24- to 48- hours in advance.
• A new DNA extraction method for determining the amount of pathogens present in water. The new method uses quantitative polymerase chain reaction technology to extract and quantify Enterococcus bacteria DNA, a fecal indicator, from water samples.

Responding to Aging Water Infrastructure

EPA scientists and engineers evaluate and demonstrate innovative technologies and improve the cost effectiveness of operation, maintenance, and replacement of aging and failing drinking water and wastewater treatment and conveyance systems.

During 2010, EPA began a long-term assessment of permeable surfaces to address urban stormwater management. The research is being conducted at the Porous Pavement Parking Lot and Rain Garden Demonstration Site located at the Agency’s laboratory facilities at the Edison Environmental Center in Edison, New Jersey.

At the Demonstration Site, EPA replaced a 43,000-square-foot section of parking lot with three different types of permeable pavement, and planted several rain gardens with different types of vegetation.

Over the next decade, EPA researchers will evaluate the effectiveness of each pavement type and the rain gardens in removing pollutants from stormwater. They also will measure how each type of permeable pavement helps water filter back into the ground.

Responding to the Need for Improved Microbial Source Tracking (MST) Assays

In 2010, EPA completed initial assessments of molecular assays for identifying different sources of fecal contamination in source waters (i.e., human, bovine, avian).  Findings demonstrate that some assays are more robust than others in detecting species-specific indicators of pollution. Also, there are within-species factors (e.g., diet) that affect a particular assay’s ability to uniquely identify sources of fecal contamination. Efforts are ongoing to more fully develop and assess MST assays in terms of specificity and sensitivity.

National Aquatic Resource Surveys Technical Support

EPA scientists and engineers provided technical support on a monitoring design, condition indicators, and field manuals for the first assessment of the biological condition of the Nation’s wetlands conducted by the Agency’s Office of Water.

These efforts were key for the development of the National Wetland Condition Assessment, the first comprehensive, statistically valid scientific assessment of the condition of the nation’s wetlands. The assessment’s design creates a link between EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the national assessments of wetland condition and the changes in that condition through time.