Watershed Management for Potable Water Supply

Watershed Management for Potable Water Supply

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2000-02-17

Total Pages: 569

ISBN-13: 0309172683

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In 1997, New York City adopted a mammoth watershed agreement to protect its drinking water and avoid filtration of its large upstate surface water supply. Shortly thereafter, the NRC began an analysis of the agreement's scientific validity. The resulting book finds New York City's watershed agreement to be a good template for proactive watershed management that, if properly implemented, will maintain high water quality. However, it cautions that the agreement is not a guarantee of permanent filtration avoidance because of changing regulations, uncertainties regarding pollution sources, advances in treatment technologies, and natural variations in watershed conditions. The book recommends that New York City place its highest priority on pathogenic microorganisms in the watershed and direct its resources toward improving methods for detecting pathogens, understanding pathogen transport and fate, and demonstrating that best management practices will remove pathogens. Other recommendations, which are broadly applicable to surface water supplies across the country, target buffer zones, stormwater management, water quality monitoring, and effluent trading.


Assessment of Non-Point Source Pollution in the Vadose Zone

Assessment of Non-Point Source Pollution in the Vadose Zone

Author: Dennis L. Corwin

Publisher: American Geophysical Union

Published: 1999-01-26

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13:

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Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 108. Non-point source (NPS) pollution in the vadose zone (simply defined as the layer of soil extending from the soil surface to the groundwater table) is a global environmental problem. Characteristically, NPS pollutants are widespread and occasionally ubiquitous in extent, thus making remediation efforts difficult and complex; have the potential for maintaining a relatively long active presence in the global ecosystem; and may result in long?]term, chronic health effects in humans and other life forms. Similar to other global environmental issues, the knowledge and information required to address the problem of NPS pollutants in the vadose zone cross several technological and subdisciplinary lines: spatial statistics, geographic information systems (GIS), hydrology, soil science, and remote sensing. Cooperation between disciplines and scientific societies is essential to address the problem. Evidence of such cooperation was the jointly sponsored American Geophysical Union Chapman/Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) Outreach Conference that occurred in October 1997, entitled “Applications of GIS, Remote Sensing, Geostatistics, and Solute Transport Modeling to the Assessment of Non-Point Source Pollution in the Vadose Zone.” The objective of the conference and this book, which was developed from the conference, was to explore current multidisciplinary research for assessing NPS pollution in soil and groundwater resources.