See journals under US Geological survey. Prof. paper 1401-A.

The nitrate content of drinking water is rising at an alarming rate in several regions of NATO countries and elsewhere in the world. The increase is due to lack of proper sewage treatment, and primarily to excess fertilizer application. Also, eutrophication in several coastal areas is triggered by high nitrate concentrations. The main purpose of this book is to integrate scientific knowledge related to exposure assessment, health consequences and control of nitrate contamination in water. The motivation is related to the magnitude, the possible adverse health effects, and the high cost of control ling nitrate contamination. Future research tasks are defined by an interaction among hydro logists, toxicologists and environmental engineers in an integrated framework for nitrate risk management. The target readership of this book is a mix of university colleagues, practitioners from both the private and public sectors and advanced graduate students working with the hydrological, health science or environmental engineering aspects of nitrate contamination. The main conclusions include: 1. For risk assessment purposes, knowledge and sufficiently accurate models are available to predict nitrate load and its fate in water under changes in land use. 2. Once agricultural exposure controls are implemented, the response times in ground water may be so long as to make controls unrealistic. 3. It is still unknown whether agricultural best management practice is a compromise between nitrate risk reduction and agricultural revenue. 4. The current drinking water guidelines of 10 mg/L NOrN need not be changed.

A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil—the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers—the nut king, grape king and citrus queen—tell their story here for the first time. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.