Runoff and other land-based pollution from large riverside cities such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Wilmington, and Washington, DC, New York City, and surrounding suburban sprawl adversely affect fish habitats in the Delaware, Susquehanna, Ohio, Hudson,and Potomac River basins, as well as many smaller streams. A concentration of human population and impervious surfaces extends from northeastern New Jersey to southeastern Virginia and to the coastal areas of the Mid-Atlantic. For example, the 2015 assessment determined high degradation risk in streams along the I-95, I-81, and I-79 corridors. Urban development continues to spread, as rural land in the states of this region declined by 5.9 million acres from 1982 to 2012. Pennsylvania [...]
