by Joanna Lasher
March 31, 2024
Big rains, floods - constantly in the news, mud season - seems to have gotten a lot longer! In New York this seems to be the most salient problem. We also have periodic droughts - even in New York which has plentiful water.
What is the relationship between climate change and all these crazy water events? The short answer is a warmer world causes a lot of evaporation into the atmosphere. All that water has to go somewhere. It impacts the jet streams and the upper atmosphere and then comes back down in the form of horrific storms.
How have we tried to control flooding and has it worked? Our main tools have been dams and levees. Does this work or doesn’t it? Do we dam or don’t we dam? Dams provide us with a lot of productive energy for electricity. They hold back water from flooding towns and fields. Unfortunately, we now have so much water that the dams can’t hold back the water in many places. They also prevent some good things from happening, so some of them need to be removed before they burst and do great amounts of damage downstream. They prevent fish such as salmon from swimming upriver and reproducing. They dry up wetlands which we now know have many important benefits. The ultimate example is the destruction of New Orleans and the need to save the Mississippi Delta. New York has many rivers that now are overflowing their banks: The Hudson, the Mohawk, the St. Lawrence, the Schoharie Creek etc.
What is all this apparently sudden interest in wetlands? It actually has been developing for many decades, but interest has spiked with the realization of the need to re-think water control methods in light of the impacts of climate change. “Many Wetlands are transition areas between dry land (uplands) and open water (aquatic habitats)” (Spohr & Krista, 2024, p. 12). Wetlands are critical to making the land more resilient to the effects of climate change: Wetlands 1) filter water and get rid of pollutants, absorbing excess nutrients, sediment and other pollutants before they reach rivers, lakes and other water bodies; 2) sequester large amounts of carbon; 3) prevent water from washing away topsoil; and 4) mitigate flooding and moderate the effects of sea level rise. They “act like a sponge, trapping water and then slowly releasing it back into the watershed helping it to control the amount and speed of the water going into major water bodies. They absorb the forces of floods and tidal erosion to prevent the loss of upland soil, which can reduce property damage and even save lives. They also desalinate water and recharge aquifers and groundwater supplies” (Spohr & Krista, 2024, pp. 12).
How do they do this? They do it partly by allowing the water to spread out over a broader area and follow its natural pathways. They do it because the wetlands, which are often an area between open water and the land, are habitat for plants (think mangrove or pussy willow) and many kinds of aquatic animals (nursery area for many kinds of fish) that thrive there, suck up the excess water, eventually releasing it slowly. In river basins and at the edge of water bodies, sediment is deposited in the wetland areas which makes rich, fertile soil for aquatic plants and animals of all kinds.
“Wetland Protections, In the United States, wetlands are protected by the Clean Water Act of 1972,” (Spohr & Krista, 2024, pp 13-14) and subsequent updates which requires permits for dredging and filling activities in most wetlands. Some states have their own laws and are becoming more active in wetland protection as more responsibility has been delegated from the federal government to the states.
“In New York State wetlands are closely regulated by the Department of Environmental conservation (DEC) under the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL),” (Spohr & Krista, 2024, pp. 14-15) and subsequent acts. The revisions required DEC to map wetlands and rank wetlands according to the benefits they provided. DEC regulates wetlands of 12.4 acres as well as some smaller exceptional pieces. A new law passed in 2022 gives authority over any land that meets the definition of a wetland as of January 1, 2025 and reduces the acreage to 7.4 as of January 2028 (Spohr & Krista, 2024, pp. 14-15).
The DEC is active in regulating our water in other ways also. It keeps track of the amount of both ground and surface water all over the state. It requires permits for any entity in the state that is using more than 100,000 gallons per day as well as providing a Water Conservation program plan. It has an invasive species program to protect our waters. It permits and regulates the safety of dams and bridges.
The two DEC articles quoted and/or summarized in this article ended with the principle of Aquifer Conservation and Sustainability, also called the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Principle:
“The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Principle is a philosophy we can all put into action in our own lives. The principle states that ‘In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.’ We all should make decisions and efforts to sustain our water resources for future generations, even our descendants hundreds of years from now. For more information on the Seventh Generation Principle, go to: www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/values/” (Guidetti, 2024, p. 21).
I believe New York State with its plans for water conservation administered by the DEC is attempting to follow this principle.
References
Guidetti, B. (2024). Sustaining New York’s Groundwater Resources, New York State Conservationist 78(4), 20-21.
Spohr, K., & Colyer-Pendas, T. (2024). It’s a Wetland. ,New York State Conservationist 78(4), 12–15