Our nation has made significant progress in cleaning up polluted waters. Yet, while we devote substantial resources to restoring impaired waters, we continue to experience the loss of some of our remaining healthy aquatic ecosystems. Some key statistics provide clear evidence of both recent and ongoing declines in our aquatic resources.

• Over the last 50 years, coastal and freshwater wetlands have declined; surface water and groundwater withdrawals have increased by 46%; and non-native fish have established themselves in many watersheds (Heinz Center, 2008).
• A recent national water quality survey of the nation's wadeable streams showed that 42% of the nation's stream length is in poor biological condition and 25% is in fair biological condition (U.S. EPA, 2006).
• Nearly 40% of fish in North American freshwater streams, rivers, and lakes are found to be vulnerable, threatened, or endangered; nearly twice as many as were included on the imperiled list from a similar survey conducted in 1989 (Jelks et al., 2008).

The objective of the federal Clean Water Act is to "restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters." While other EPA programs focus on restoring impaired waters, the Healthy Watersheds Initiative augments the watershed approach with proactive, holistic aquatic ecosystem conservation and protection. The Healthy Watersheds Initiative includes both assessment and management approaches that encourage states, local governments, watershed organizations, and others to take a strategic, systems approach to conserve healthy components of watersheds, and, therefore, avoid additional water quality impairments in the future.

In March of 2007, the West Virginia Watershed Network (WVWN) sponsored a statewide forum to discuss permits required when conducting remedial work in or adjacent to West Virginia Streams and Wetlands. Representatives from federal, state, and local government agencies, who regulate and permit such activities, gave presentations on the different permitting processes. At the conclusion of the forum, it was the WVWN’s goal to prepare a single document that briefly described all the various stream disturbance permits and make that available in electronic form to the public. Please click on attachment for final version.

The WVWN wishes to thank all those that contributed time and energy in helping to prepare this document and hope it proves to be a helpful tool for anyone performing remedial work around West Virginia streams and wetlands.