HR: 1340h
AN: H53A-1225    [Abstracts]
TI: Is wetland mitigation successful in Southern California?
AU: * Cummings, D L
EM: deanna.l.cummings@usace.army.mil
AF: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 915 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90017 United States
AU: Rademacher, L K
EM: lradema@calstatela.edu
AF: Department of Geological Sciences California State University, Los Angeles, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90032 United States
AB: Wetlands perform many vital functions within their landscape position; they provide unique habitats for a variety of flora and fauna and they act as treatment systems for upstream natural and anthropogenic waste. California has lost an estimated 91% of its wetlands. Despite the 1989 "No Net Loss" policy and mitigation requirements by the regulatory agencies, the implemented mitigation may not be offsetting wetlands losses. The "No Net Loss" policy is likely failing for numerous reasons related to processes in the wetlands themselves and the policies governing their recovery. Of particular interest is whether these mitigation sites are performing essential wetlands functions. Specific questions include: 1) Are hydric soil conditions forming in mitigation sites; and, 2) are the water quality-related chemical transformations that occur in natural wetlands observed in mitigation sites. This study focuses on success (or lack of success) in wetlands mitigation sites in Southern California. Soil and water quality investigations were conducted in wetland mitigation sites deemed to be successful by vegetation standards. Observations of the Standard National Resource Conservation Service field indicators of reducing conditions were made to determine whether hydric soil conditions have developed in the five or more years since the implementation of mitigation plans. In addition, water quality measurements were performed at the inlet and outlet of these mitigation sites to determine whether these sites perform similar water quality transformations to natural wetlands within the same ecosystem. Water quality measurements included nutrient, trace metal, and carbon species measurements. A wetland location with minimal anthropogenic changes and similar hydrologic and vegetative features was used as a control site. All sites selected for study are within a similar ecosystem, in the interior San Diego and western Riverside Counties, in Southern California.
DE: 0345 Pollution--urban and regional (0305)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting