Headwaters

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-012996",
  "term": "Headwaters",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. The upper watershed area where streams generally begin; typically consists of 1st- and 2nd-order streams.\n\n2. Streams at the source of a river.\n\n3. Non-tidal rivers, streams, and their lakes and impoundments, including adjacent wetlands, that are part of a surface tributary system to an interstate or navigable water of the United States upstream of the point on the river or stream at which the average annual flow is less than five cubic feet per second. The District Engineer may estimate this point from available data by using the mean annual area precipitation, area drainage basin maps, and the average runoff coefficient, or by similar means. For streams that are dry for long periods of the year, District Engineers may establish the point where headwaters begin as that point on the stream where a flow of five cubic feet per second is equaled or exceeded 50 percent of the time. [COE-33 CFR 330.2(d)]\n\n4. The small streams that come together to form a river. Also may be thought of as any and all parts of a river basin except the mainstream river and main tributaries.\n\n5. The source and upper reaches of a stream; also the upper reaches of a reservoir.\n\n6. The source and upper reaches of a stream; also the upper reaches of a, lake, reservoir, or estuary.\n\n7. The water upstream from a structure or point on a stream.\n\n8. The small streams that come together to form a river. Also may be thought of as any and all parts of a river basin except the mainstream river and main tributaries. The water from which a river originates.",
  "subject": "Water",
  "references": [
    "Watershed Protection Glossary",
    "Chesapeake Bay Glossary",
    "EPA Mountaintop Mining Valley Fills Draft Environmental Impact Statement Glossary at http://www.epa.gov/region3/mtntop/pdf/VIII_Glossary.pdf",
    "USGS Water Science Glossary of Terms",
    "NSTEPS Online Glossary of Terms; N-STEPS Online Glossary of Terms"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/headwaters/"
}