New River Gorge National River, Gauley River National Recreation Area, and Bluestone National Scenic River, West Virginia / water resource scoping report

National Park Service, New River Gorge National River; National Park Service. Water Resources Division

New River Gorge National River, Gauley River National Recreation Area, and Bluestone National Scenic River represent some of the most significant water resources and water-based recreational activities in the national park system. All three parks are within the Kanawha-New River basin of the Appalachian Plateaus physiographic province. These parks represent a total of 76,761 acres, with only 61% owned by the National Park Service. This multiple ownership/jurisdictional aspect combined with a host of water resource issues have prompted this Water Resources Scoping Report. The purposes of this Water Resources Scoping Report are: to summarize existing information about the water resources of these parks; and, to determine and briefly evaluate water resource issues in these parks. Water resources-related issues discussed in this report include: • bacterial contamination of tributaries due to improper sewage treatment; • the number of impoundments and their hydrological effects; • the extent of agricultural and urban runoff; • the consequences of past coal mining and oil and gas development; • future upstream silvicultural activities; • current water quality and the lack of adequate data management; • non-native trout stocking in tributaries; • hazardous materials/toxics from spills, abandoned landfills, superfund sites, and military dumps; • evaluating the effects of continued black fly spraying; and, the potential for future development both inside and beyond park boundaries. Because of the nature of the issues and the complex nature of both surface and ground water resources, further water resource planning is needed. The development of a comprehensive water resources management plan is recommended. An important element of this plan should be the development of a water quality monitoring plan. This monitoring plan should discuss the rationale behind the selection of monitoring parameters, sampling stations and sampling frequencies, additional data collection, and methodologies for data collection, storage, and analysis.

New River Gorge National River, Gauley River National Recreation Area, and Bluestone National Scenic River, West Virginia / water resource scoping report

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