An excerpt from a presentation Dr. Michael Rozengurt, an estuarine
oceanographer who has specialized in the effects of water impoundments
on fisheries, gave to Congress on March 22, 1993:

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IRREVOCABLE DISTORTION OF RIVER-DELTA-ESTUARY-COASTAL ECOSYSTEM

    Watershed Modification                     Results

Artificially subnormal runoffs    1     Deleterious for water quality
regardless of precipitation;    ----->  and living resources.
Nature's margin - 25%                             |
          |                                       |
Truncated flooding and duration;  2     Obstruct normal migration and
abnormal runoff distribution.   ----->  spawning.  River coastal zone
          |                             no longer natural.
          |                                       |
Cumulative runoff losses exceed   3     Loss of million tons of silt, 
many times delta and estuarine  ----->  organic and inorganic matter,
volumes.                                oxygen, depletion, saliniza-
          |                             tion of wells and aquifers.
          |                                       |
Dewatering of the delta, abnormal  4    Desertification, salinization,
water level fluctuations, tempe- ---->  scouring, and erosion of delta,
rature & oxygen shock; decreased        beaches; subsidence of levees;
runoff velocity and self-purifi-        accumulation of pollutants; FRESH
cation; increased detention time.       WATER INTAKES ARE IN JEOPARDY.
          |                                       |
Runoff deficiency aggravates      5     Compressed salt wedge maximize:
estuarine-coastal processes     ----->  delta salt contamination, oxygen
(advection, mixing, entrainment,        deficiency; eutrophication/loss
enrichment, etc.).                      of productivity.
          |                                       |
Transformation of stochastically  6     Despolation of coastal ecosystem
balanced ecosystem into unba-    ---->  on catastrophic scale.  Agricul-
lanced water bodies.                    tural discharges exacerbate this
          |                             problem.
          |                                       |
Estuary transformation into       7     Catastrophic decline of fish repro-
marine harbor controlled by     ----->  duction, survival and catch, spawn-
tides and wind-driven circu-            ing grounds demolished.  Coastal
lation.                                 zone becomes a "blue desert."
          |                                       |
         INSURMOUNTABLE ECONOMIC AND SOCIETAL LOSSES

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