Get Outdoors - Volunteer: Combating Sprawl to Save Rivers and Communities

What Is Sprawl? Although it comes in many forms and degrees, sprawl, at its heart, is poorly planned, land consumptive development.In the United States, we are developing land even faster than our population is growing, with low-density settlements on the edges of a more urbanized areas continuously spreading out into previously undeveloped lands. Residential areas often lead the way, followed by strip malls and office parks. Between 1970 and 1990, the United States lost almost 20 million acres of rural land to development, with residential and commercial centers consuming 400,000 acres per year. According to a study by the American Farmland Trust, seventy percent of prime or unique farmland is threatened by rapid development.

The Threat of Sprawl
Sprawl ravages our rivers in many ways. It replaces undeveloped lands with roads, parking lots, sidewalks, rooftops, and other impervious surfaces that dramatically increase runoff flowing into rivers and streams. Even small increases in impervious surfaces - as little as 10% - can have a significant impact on stream health. Converting just one acre from meadow to parking lot increases the amount of runoff sixteen-fold. This increase in runoff alters the shape of streambeds, hastens erosion, carries toxins and excess sediment into our waterways, poisons aquatic plants and animals, and degrades important habitat. Water supply is also a problem that follows fringe development. Cities and towns, desperate for water to serve exploding populations, often pump water from nearby rivers faster than it can be replenished.

As the boundaries of our cities and towns push ever outward, people move too close to riverbanks and into floodplains, manhandling these fragile ecosystems in an attempt to control flooding and prevent erosion. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, poor planning and unwise development that destroys wetlands and open space is a principle cause for the increased incidence and severity of flooding in the United States. Floods are most frequent and loss of life and property the greatest in counties that have lost the most wetlands. Nationwide, floods killed 892 people from 1988 to 1997 at an average cost of $4.3 billion per year.In the West, sprawl has long had a significant impact on rivers and water resources, and water quality and quantity continue to be the single most limiting factor when it comes to Western development patterns. The resource needs of the West's growing population are compounded by the fact that the region?s per capita water use is growing even faster than its population, as is its rate of land consumption. In central Puget Sound, population rose by 38 percent between 1970 and 1990, but the amount of land developed in the region over the same two decades was 87 percent, with profound impacts of water resources and quality. Of California's 350 groundwater basins, forty are being seriously overdrafted today, and the state could face a water deficit of 2-8 million-acre feet by 2020.

The East faces serious sprawl consequences as well. According to a Sierra Club study, the East is home to the four most sprawl-threatened large cities in the nation - Atlanta, Georgia, St. Louis, Missouri; Washington, D.C; and Cincinnati, Ohio. In just 2 years, Vermont, historically known for its strong rural legacy, lost 10% of its farmland to development. Disorderly development threatens to erase the progress made in restoring the Chesapeake Bay, where sprawl eats up 90,000 acres of land in the Bay states every year. According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, sprawl produces 5-7 times as much sediment and phosphorous runoff as forestland and nearly twice as much polluted runoff as compacted development.

Sprawl and America's Most Endangered Rivers of 1999
This year's America's Most Endangered Rivers report is one of the first in-depth looks at how unbridled development is marring our nation's rivers and streams and catalogues areas where sprawl and rivers are on a head-on collision course. Included in the American Rivers report is an examination of how:

Puget Sound's unbridled development has crippled the Cedar River, decimating what was one of the most productive salmon and steelhead rivers in Washington. Seattle is proposing a plan plan that could well cause even more damage to Cedar river chinook salmon already listed under the Endangered Species Act. The plan - for which Seattle wants an exemption from the Endangered Species Act, allows the city to increase water withdrawals from 30 to 70 percent of the river?s flow in some seasons, and does not even ask its suburban water customers to conserve water.
Metro Chicago's rapid growth is overloading the city's sewage treatment system and pushing excess waste into the Fox River. The amount of treated sewage regularly released into the river is expected to increase by 50 percent by the year 2010. Because the Fox drains into the Illinois River which drains into the Mississippi River, metro Chicago's sewage and runoff finds its way all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
Salt Lake City, which has one of the highest per capita water use rates in the country, diverts so much water from the Bear River that it is damaging one of the world's most remarkable wildlife refuges. The state's rock-bottom water prices encourage wasteful use of water in this arid region. The endangered refuge supports one of North America's largest populations of migratory fowl.
Atlanta's growth is sucking dry the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basin, one of the richest sources of freshwater aquatic species in the world. Major industries and rapidly expanding communities up and down the river are already pulling too much water out -- making it hard for the river to dilute the massive amounts of pollutants that flow into it everyday from farm fields, city streets, sewage systems, and suburban lawns. The fate of this river basin hangs in the balance, with Georgia, Florida, and Alabama expected to approve a water allocation plan by December.

The expanding Sierra Vista and Fort Huachuca communities in Arizona are pumping so much groundwater that the amount of water recharging the San Pedro River has dropped by 30 percent. With most of Arizona's riverside areas already damaged, the San Pedro is the last best example of a rich and healthy natural community in the southwestern US. If Fort Huachuca and Sierra Vista continue to consume water with abandon, we will lose the San Pedro River and the bounty of desert and migratory species that depend on it.
Monterey County, California, one of the fastest growing counties in the state, is replacing streamside plants and trees along the Carmel River, a treasure trove of migratory birds and other wildlife, with lawns and golf courses. As a result, more and more water is being pulled out of the river to serve exploding populations - much of it illegally. The county's knee jerk reaction to the water supply problem is to build a new dam and retrofit another without considering other more cost effective and environmentally better alternatives like water conservation.

While the impact of sprawl on rivers is certainly an environmental story it is also a quality of life story with serious and far-reaching economic consequences for communities everywhere.

Healthy Rivers: The Lifeblood of Our Communities
Virtually every major city and thousands of cities and towns rest on the banks of a river. In recent years, many urban and rural centers have rediscovered and are revitalizing their hometown rivers - cleaning up riverfronts, improving water quality, and removing barriers to nearby waterways. In turn, their river restoration efforts are having a powerful impact on their economies.

As hometown rivers become cleaner and more attractive, families and people of all ages, cultures, and income levels flock to them to reconnect with nature, enjoy outdoor recreation, and find some solitude. Not surprisingly, rivers and riverside parks are becoming an increasingly important part of the quality of life that communities offer their residents. And as people seek to enrich their lives and move to areas offering these kinds of amenities, economic growth follows: companies relocate and job opportunities increase, the service sector expands, tourism dollars flow, and river-based recreation abounds.

A number of cities are realizing these benefits even now:

In Hartford, CT, city officials formed the non-profit Riverfront Recapture to reunite Hartford's citizens with the city's forgotten river the CT. In collaboration with local and federal partners, Riverfront Recapture has successfully restored public access to the river and created a network of parks and recreational facilities along its banks. The initiative has brought great enjoyment to the city's population and been a significant boon to its economy.
Denver, CO's local officials, aided by several federal agencies, have successfully revitalized the South Platte River and reconnected the city to the river by establishing riverfront parks, expanding environmental education opportunities, and ensuring ample water flows to support wildlife and recreation. The initiative has helped reduce environmental health threats to low income communities, expand river habitat, reduce flood hazards, and enhance the city's sense of stewardship over the river.
The Mississippi River near Minneapolis, MN faces significant threats from rapid development, industrial pollution, and urban runoff. By working together on projects such as Greening the Great River Park, designed to restore native vegetation to the Mississippi River Valley in St. Paul, local groups and individuals have helped reconnect the city to the Mississippi River. By the year 2000, Greening the Great River Park expects to plant 30,000 native trees and shrubs, 15,000 wildflowers, and 50 acres of native prairie in the river valley.

These cities and many others have put in motion a river renaissance that is now spreading across the country. But perhaps more importantly, communities are finding that, rather than being eyesores and dumpsites, their hometown rivers can actually help to reverse sprawl by drawing people back to population centers that are better able to serve their needs.

One initiative aimed at changing how we think about development and its impacts on rivers is the American Heritage Rivers Initiative. This federally launched, community-based river restoration program will give towns and cities across the nation a great opportunity to protect and restore their hometown rivers and revitalize their communities. Another federal project aimed at controlling sprawl and restoring rivers is the Clinton Administration's "Better America Bonds" initiative. Part of the Administration's FY00 budget plan, the proposal calls for $10 billion in bonds to help communities conserve open space, protect water quality, clean up abandoned industrial sites, and reduce automotive congestion.

Individuals, localities, and states across the nation are also taking action against the ravages of sprawl. Some of the solutions include purchasing land, establishing urban growth boundaries, revitalizing existing towns and cities, approving open-space revenues, mobilizing grassroots constituencies, and initiating ballot initiatives to restrict growth, protect open space, and promote conservation. Twelve states have already implemented comprehensive planning legislation.

Below are just a few examples of state-based anti-sprawl initiatives:

Oregon and Washington require all communities to develop long-term urban growth boundaries
Maryland will pay people at least $3000 to buy a home in areas closer to where they work
New Jersey Governor Christine Whitman has proposed raising the gas tax to help preserve one million acres of undeveloped land over the next decade
Tallahassee, Florida plans to spend $1 million on land purchases for the city's Rural Legacy Program

In November 1998, voters made it clear that open space preservation and sprawl control were among their top concerns. According to a poll by Phyllis Myers of State Resource Strategies, Citizens voted on 240 state and local measures related to conservation, parklands, and smarter growth. Citizens approved 72 percent of these measures, triggering more than $7.5 billion in additional state and local conservation spending.

As the nation begins to rethink development patterns that currently cause so much harm to our environment and quality of life, rivers can be a potent tool in promoting growth strategies that strengthen the fabric of our communities and protect the health, safety, and welfare of our citizens.

For more information, visit www.amrivers.org or contact Amy Souers, Communications Associate, at 202/347-7550.