Impacts from land-use alteration can also be felt more strongly in headwaters. Loss of forest cover, increases in the amount of impermeable land surface, and increased erosion and sedimentation near streams can also radically affect
stream organisms and ecosystems. Forest cover influences temperature, levels of dissolved oxygen, erosion rates, and input of nutrients into streams from leaves. The revised SGEIS suggested that the edge of the well pads not be closer than 150 feet to streams without requiring site-specific review. Such required setbacks from streams may alleviate serious nutrient input and temperature impacts, but combined with the creation of new impermeable surfaces from drilling,16 removal of vegetation from land will inevitably alter sediment runoff into streams.