EPA's Vessel General Permit and Small Vessel General

Louisiana parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis ludoviciana) became extinct followed two years
later by the extinction of its relative, the Carolina parakeet (C. c. carolinensis). The heath hen
became extinct in the mid-1920s, the June sucker (Chasmistes liorus liorus) in the mid-1930s,
Tecopa pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis calidae) in the early 1940s, and Ash Meadows killifish
(Empetrichthys merriami) and Thicktail chub (Gila crassicauda) in the 1950s. Over the past 200
years, a substantial portion of the bird fauna of the Hawaiian islands -including the Oahu akepa,
Kona finch, Lanai creeper, black mamo, and Hawai’i o’o- became extinct combined with the
extinction of substantial portions of the freshwater mussel fauna of the Mississippi, Ohio, and
Tennessee Rivers and regional extirpations of the flora and fauna of California, Florida, Oregon,
Puerto Rico, and the desert states.
Status and Trends of Waters of the United States
All of the endangered and threatened species and designated critical habitat under the jurisdiction
of NMFS depend on the health of aquatic ecosystems for their survival. These species were
listed as endangered or threatened, at least in part, because of the consequences of human
activities on the aquatic ecosystems -the estuaries, rivers, lakes, streams, and associated
wetlands, floodplains, and riparian ecosystems- of the United States, its Territories and
possessions. The status and trends of those aquatic ecosystems determines the status and trends
of these species and the critical habitat that has been designated for them.
Over the past 30 to 40 years, the nation’s aquatic ecosystems have improved substantially. In
particular, pollution from point sources has been significantly reduced over the past 35 years.
Sewage and industrial discharges into aquatic ecosystems have been controlled and some
agricultural pesticides have been restricted or banned. Programs like the Conservation Reserve
Program have taken highly erodible lands out of production. Despite this progress, however,
many aquatic ecosystems remain highly polluted. Of the waters bodies they assessed -39 percent
of the river and stream miles, 46 percent of the lake area and 51 percent of the estuarine area-
one or more designated uses are impaired. Non-point pollution from urban and agricultural land
(e.g. siltation, nutrients, bacteria, metals and oxygen depleting substances) that is transported by
precipitation and runoff was the primary cause of the impairment.
These water quality problems, particularly the problem of non-point sources of pollution, have
resulted from the changes humans have imposed on the landscapes of the United States over the
past 100 – 200 years. One way of relating these changes in water quality to land uses relies on
the surface area of a watershed that is covered by porous versus impervious surfaces. Most land
areas that are covered by natural vegetation are highly porous and have very little sheet flow;
precipitation falling on these landscapes infiltrates the soil, is transpired by the vegetative cover
or evaporates. The increased transformation of the landscapes of the United States into a mosaic
of urban and suburban land uses has increased the area of impervious surfaces -roads, rooftops,
parking lots, driveways and sidewalks- in those landscapes.
The amount of impervious surface in a watershed is a reliable indicator of a suite of phenomena
that influence a watershed’s hydrology (Center for Watershed Protection, 2003). Above certain
thresholds, landscapes with impervious surfaces respond to precipitation differently than other
204