Study Finds Small Streams, Recently Stripped of Protections, Are a Big Deal

Last year, the Supreme Court sharply restricted the federal government’s ability to limit pollution in small streams that sit dry for much of the year and fill up only after rainfall or snowmelt.Now, a new study finds that those bodies, so-called ephemeral streams, are significantly more important to the nation’s waterways than often appreciated.The research, published Thursday in the journal Science, estimates…