Wild & Scenic River Proximity Screener — Section 7 Flag

Batch coordinate screener for proximity to designated National Wild & Scenic Rivers (WSR). Give it a list of sites (lat/lon) and it returns, for each site, the nearest designated Wild & Scenic River — river name, segment classification (Wild / Scenic / Recreational), administering agencies, designating public law, Outstandingly Remarkable Values, per-classification mileage, and the nearest-point-on-line distance — plus a wsr_section7_flag that fires when a designated river lies within your search radius.

Under Section 7 of the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act, a federally assisted water-resources project — a dam, diversion, bank stabilization, FERC hydro license, bridge, or dredge-and-fill — that is on or directly affecting a designated river requires a free-flow determination. This actor is a fast first-pass screen for that exposure across a whole portfolio of sites.

Data is the multi-agency USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse National Wild & Scenic River service (USFS / NPS / BLM / FWS, public domain). Measured live 2026-08-01: 249 designated river corridors, 1,050 mapped segments and 301 mileage records across 41 states and Puerto Rico, the newest designation being the John D. Dingell Jr. Act of 2019-03-12.

What changed in v1.1 (2026-08-01)

v1.0 computed every distance from the segment layer alone. Nationally that layer covers 99.9% of the corridor network — but the Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River in New Mexico (river_id 155) is only 64.4% covered, and 22.2% of its corridor sits more than 5 km from any mapped segment, worst case 8.755 miles. At 36.24213, -105.83180 — 0.0001 mi (16 cm) from the designated Rio Grande corridor — v1.0 emitted a billable row reading rivers_within_radius: 0, wsr_section7_flag: false. A false clear on a charter 1968 Wild & Scenic River.

v1.1 screens both the corridor layer and the segment layer and reports the minimum distance across the two, plus:

• a per-source outcome contract (segment_layer_status, corridor_layer_status, mileage_table_status) — every verdict is null rather than false when a contributing source did not answer, so an outage can never be sold as a clean site;
• live drift assertions run before any billable row: layer counts in measured bands, the classification vocabulary closed, a positive canary on the Rogue, a positive canary inside the Rio Grande gap, a known-clear negative control on Denver, a projection/magnitude guard, and a designation-date freshness check. If any fails, the run fails and nothing is billed;
• 52 new output fields surfaced from data the actor already fetched and discarded, plus the previously unqueried River Mileage table.

No existing field was removed, renamed or re-meaning'd, and the price is unchanged.

Who it's for

• Hydropower / energy / water-resources developers — FERC licensing and dam/diversion siting where a WSR designation can bar or complicate a project.
• Dredge-and-fill / marine / infrastructure contractors — Section 404 / Section 7 exposure screening.
• NEPA & environmental consultants — batch pre-screen candidate sites for WSR conflicts before a full review.
• Land, recreation, real-estate & conservation — flag parcels adjacent to a protected free-flowing river.
• AI agents & data pipelines — a clean, chainable geospatial due-diligence tool.

Example input

{
  "assets": [
    { "lat": 42.65, "lon": -123.58, "label": "Rogue River, OR", "radius": 5000 },
    { "lat": 39.7392, "lon": -104.9903, "label": "Denver, CO", "radius": 5000 }
  ],
  "radiusMeters": 5000,
  "maxResults": 500
}

Each asset is { lat, lon, label?, radius? } (radius in meters, optional per-asset override). "lat,lon" strings and [lat, lon] arrays are also accepted. One dataset row (one billed result) is produced per asset.

Verified live results (build 1.1, 2026-08-01, 5000 m radius)

Asset	Nearest river	Class	Administering	Distance	Detail	Section 7
42.65, -123.58 (Rogue, OR)	Rogue Wild and Scenic River	Wild	USFS, BLM	0.2596 mi	segment_mapped	true
45.30210, -114.61520 (Salmon, ID)	Salmon Wild and Scenic River	Recreational	USFS	0.0018 mi	segment_mapped	true
36.24213, -105.83180 (Rio Grande, NM)	Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River	—	BLM	0.0001 mi	corridor_only	true
41.72420, -124.04620 (Smith, CA)	Smith Wild and Scenic River	Recreational	State of California, USFS, NPS, BLM	0.0012 mi	segment_mapped	true
39.7392, -104.9903 (Denver, CO)	no river within radius	—	—	—	—	false

The Rio Grande row is the v1.0 false clear. The Denver control returns a billed, verified "no WSR conflict" row — sources_failed: 0 is what makes that false trustworthy.

Output fields

Every field the actor declares, in emitted order.

The screened site

Field	Description
asset_label	Label of the screened site (as provided, or lat,lon).
asset_lat / asset_lon	WGS84 coordinates of the screened site.
search_radius_meters	Radius in metres used for this asset (per-asset override or global default).

Nearest designated river

Field	Description
nearest_river_name	Full name of the nearest designated Wild & Scenic River within the radius.
nearest_river_shortname	Short / GNIS name of that river.
nearest_river_id	USFS river_id — the join key across all three sources.
nearest_distance_miles / nearest_distance_km	Nearest-point-on-line distance, minimum across the corridor and segment layers.
nearest_corridor_distance_miles	Distance to the corridor line (layer 0).
nearest_segment_distance_miles	Distance to the nearest mapped segment (layer 1); null when that river has no segment in the radius.
segment_detail_status	segment_mapped (classification and ORVs available) or corridor_only (the reach is designated but unmapped at segment level, so classification is unknown); null when nothing was found.
on_designated_river	True when the site sits essentially on the corridor (≤ ~0.05 mi).
nearest_river_state	State of the nearest river.

Nearest segment detail

Field	Description
nearest_segment_id	USFS segment_id of the nearest mapped segment.
nearest_segment_classification	Wild, Scenic or Recreational. One of 1,050 segments has no classification upstream, so null is possible on a real hit.
nearest_segment_gnis_name	GNIS watercourse name for the segment.
nearest_segment_begin / nearest_segment_end	Reach endpoint narratives.
nearest_segment_miles	Designated length of the segment, in miles.
nearest_river_total_miles	Total designated miles for the river as recorded on the segment record.
nearest_segment_admin_unit	National forest / BLM district / park unit administering the segment.
nearest_segment_county	County or counties the segment runs through.
nearest_segment_agency	Raw administering agency code on the segment, verbatim from USFS.

Agencies

Field	Description
administering_agencies	Corridor-level administering agencies, raw. null when the corridor layer did not answer — v1.0 silently substituted the narrower segment agency here.
administering_agencies_normalized	The same value reduced to recognised federal codes (USFS / NPS / BLM / FWS).
administering_other_entities	Non-federal administrators named on the corridor record — states, tribes and partnership bodies for Section 2(a)(ii) rivers.
nearest_segment_agency_normalized	The segment agency reduced to recognised codes; null rather than a guess.
unrecognized_agency_codes	Tokens in the controlled segment agency column that are not agency codes. USFS publishes one: 214 on Salmon WSR segment 24.2002.
river_administering_agency_name	Administering agency in plain English from the River Mileage table (e.g. Bureau of Land Management).

Designation record

Field	Description
river_category	Federally Administered, State-Administered, State and Partnership Administered, Partnership WSR or Tribe Managed — determines who you consult.
designating_public_law_name / designating_public_law_number	The Act that placed this river in the System.
designation_enacted_date	ISO date the designating Act was enacted.
river_management_plan	True when a comprehensive river management plan is recorded.
classification_source_document	Document the classification came from, where recorded.
orv_source_document	Document the ORVs came from, where recorded.
river_weblink	Official rivers.gov page.
river_local_website	Local managing-unit website, where recorded.

Outstandingly Remarkable Values (ORVs)

Field	Description
nearest_river_orvs	The orv_list string on the nearest segment. USFS leaves this null on 191 of 1,050 segments.
river_orvs_within_radius	Every distinct ORV recorded on any in-radius segment of the nearest river — the field to use, since the single nearest segment often understates them.
orv_cultural, orv_fish, orv_geologic, orv_historic, orv_recreational, orv_scenic, orv_wildlife	Per-ORV booleans on the nearest segment. false = recorded as not an ORV; null = not recorded.
orv_other	Free-text additional ORVs (botany, traditional cultural use, water quality …).

River mileage

Field	Description
river_miles_wild / river_miles_scenic / river_miles_recreational / river_miles_total	Designated miles by classification, from the USFS River Mileage table. null where USFS publishes no figure — never 0.

What was within the radius

Field	Description
rivers_within_radius	Count of distinct designated rivers within the radius.
rivers_within_radius_names	Their names, nearest first. USFS registers some rivers under one name across several river_id records (six "Smith Wild and Scenic River" entries in California), so a repeated name is real.
rivers_within_radius_ids	Their river_ids, in the same order.
segments_within_radius	Count of mapped segments within the radius.
corridors_within_radius	Count of corridor lines within the radius.
classifications_within_radius	Distinct classifications present, ordered Wild > Scenic > Recreational.
wsr_section7_flag	True when a designated river is within the radius. false only when both layers actually answered; null when one did not.

Provenance and per-source outcome

Field	Description
segment_layer_status / segment_layer_error	Outcome of the MapServer/1 query for this asset: ok, unavailable, not_applicable.
corridor_layer_status / corridor_layer_error	Outcome of the MapServer/0 query.
mileage_table_status / mileage_table_error	Outcome of the MapServer/2 River Mileage load for this run.
sources_ok / sources_failed	How many of the three sources answered / failed.
partial_result	True when at least one contributing source was unavailable — the row is incomplete, not clear.
result_truncated	True when the service still reported exceededTransferLimit after the page cap.
error	Message on an ERROR row (bad coordinates, or both layers down); null on a screened row.
checked_at	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of the run.
source_url / corridor_source_url / mileage_source_url	The three USFS EDW endpoints used.

Reliability

• null means "not checked". false means "checked and negative". If both USFS layers fail for an asset, you get an ERROR row, not a clear. If every asset fails, the run fails and nothing is billed.
• Live drift assertions run before any row is emitted. They check the service metadata and layer identity, layer feature counts against measured bands, the closed Wild / Scenic / Recreational vocabulary, a positive canary on the Rogue (river 5, ≤ 1 mi), a positive canary in the Rio Grande coverage gap (river 155, ≤ 1 mi), a negative control on Denver that must return nothing, coordinate magnitude (to catch an un-projected Web Mercator response), and that the newest designation date has not regressed. Every measured value is logged on each run.
• Set skipDriftChecks: true to skip the ~12 extra requests on very large batches; you then accept results from an unverified upstream.

Verified populating inputs. The five prefilled coordinates are chosen so that a default run exercises every column. Run them and you get, in order: a classified Wild segment with corridor agencies (Rogue, 42.65 / -123.58); a corridor_only reach (Rio Grande NM, 36.24213 / -105.8318); full segment detail — administrative unit, county, segment miles, all seven ORV booleans, orv_other, and the real unrecognized_agency_codes: ["214"] (Salmon ID, 45.5396 / -115.2664); a Section 2(a)(ii) river with administering_other_entities, both source documents and a local website (Smith CA, 41.7242 / -124.0462); and a verified clear (Denver, 39.7392 / -104.9903). On that run 4 of 75 columns are null: error, segment_layer_error, corridor_layer_error, mileage_table_error — all of which are only populated by a failure, and each is pinned by an offline fixture.

Use as an MCP tool

This actor is callable by AI agents (Claude, Cursor, etc.) via mcp.apify.com. The field-level output descriptions make it a clean, chainable geospatial due-diligence tool: feed it candidate coordinates and it returns a structured Wild & Scenic River proximity + Section 7 verdict per site, with an explicit per-source status so an agent can tell "clear" from "unknown".

FAQ

Is this legal advice or a permit determination? No. wsr_section7_flag is an advisory proximity screen. A formal Section 7(a) free-flow determination is made by the administering agency.

How is distance measured? True nearest-point-on-line distance from your coordinate to the river polyline (point-to-segment in a local equirectangular plane, final measurement by haversine). Independently verified 2026-08-01: the actor returns 417.80 m for segment 5.1002 at 42.65, -123.58; a densified great-circle brute force returns 417.80 m.

Why does a row sometimes say corridor_only? USFS maps every designated river as a corridor line (layer 0) but has not broken every reach into classified segments (layer 1). On such a reach the river is designated and Section 7 applies, but the Wild/Scenic/Recreational classification is not published. The Rio Grande in New Mexico is the largest such gap.

What counts as "within range"? Any designated Wild & Scenic River within your radius (metres). Default 5000 m (~3.1 miles); up to ~50 miles.

Which rivers are covered? All congressionally and secretarially designated National Wild & Scenic Rivers in the USFS multi-agency dataset — 249 river records across 41 states and Puerto Rico, including Section 2(a)(ii) state-administered, partnership and tribe-managed rivers.

Does it cover study rivers? No. Section 5(a) study rivers and Section 7(b) exposure are not in this dataset; this screens designated rivers only.

What if a site has no river nearby? You still get a billed row with wsr_section7_flag: false, sources_failed: 0 and null river fields — a verified "no WSR conflict" record.

Related screeners

This actor is part of a family of single-coordinate federal due-diligence screeners that all take the same assets[]{lat,lon,label} input shape, so you can run several over the same site list and join the results per site.

• Site Due Diligence Bundle — 20 federal overlays for one coordinate in a single call.
• EPA Impaired Waters 303(d) Screener — Clean Water Act 303(d) impaired waters near the site.
• NHD Surface Water 404 Screener — jurisdictional surface waters and Section 404 exposure.
• FWS Wetlands Proximity Screener — National Wetlands Inventory polygons and acreage.
• FWS Critical Habitat Screener — ESA Section 7 designated critical habitat.
• USACE Levee Flood Risk Screener — leveed-area flood risk from the National Levee Database.
• National Register of Historic Places Screener — listed historic properties and districts, NHPA Section 106 flag.
• Tribal Land Jurisdiction Screener — reservation / trust land and THPO consultation flag.

Pricing

Pay-per-result: one billed row per screened asset. A verified no-conflict site still returns a row. A run in which every asset failed is failed outright and bills nothing.

Source: USFS EDW National Wild & Scenic River Segments MapServer — layer 0 (corridors), layer 1 (segments), layer 2 (River Mileage). Public-domain federal data. This tool is a screening aid, not a substitute for an agency determination.