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.

The rapid conversion of land to urban and suburban areas has profoundly altered how water flows during and following storm events, putting higher volumes of water and more pollutants into the nation's rivers, lakes, and estuaries. These changes have degraded water quality and habitat in virtually every urban stream system. The Clean Water Act regulatory framework for addressing sewage and industrial wastes is not well suited to the more difficult problem of stormwater discharges. This book calls for an entirely new permitting structure that would put authority and accountability for stormwater discharges at the municipal level. A number of additional actions, such as conserving natural areas, reducing hard surface cover (e.g., roads and parking lots), and retrofitting urban areas with features that hold and treat stormwater, are recommended.

Learn how to develop a comprehensive runoff management program, retrofit existing development, and implement nonstructural controls. This book, originally published by EPA in 2005, contains technical assistance for accomplishing these tasks with the best available, most economically achievable means.

Get the single-source solutions guide to the sustainable management of water resources. Why is water the environmental issue? The answer is simple: without it, life on this planet could not exist. Yet, despite this fact, reckless consumption practices from a growing population are drying up the Earth's already limited water resources. Other factors, such as river and lake contamination, rising temperatures, and disproportionate geographic accessibility further contribute to the fresh water crisis. To confront this pressing concern, this enlightening guide, which covers over twenty case studies offering insights into real-world projects, uses a holistic, integrated approach to illustrate ways to preserve vital water supplies -- from green design remedies to encouraging greater personal responsibility. This book: Provides a basic overview of water resources, hydrology, current problems involving water resources, and the potential impact of global warming and climate change. Covers watershed planning, Best Management Practices, and potential design and planning solutions. Offers a concise overview of the issues affecting water use and management. Includes a full chapter dedicated to planning issues, and a full chapter covering site planning, design, and implementation. Sustainable Solutions for Water Resources takes a practical approach to head off a global water catastrophe by offering sensible measures that can be put in place immediately to promote a clean, plentiful flow of the Earth's most precious resource.

Environmental problems in coastal ecosystems can sometimes be attributed to excess nutrients flowing from upstream watersheds into estuarine settings. This nutrient over-enrichment can result in toxic algal blooms, shellfish poisoning, coral reef destruction, and other harmful outcomes. All U.S. coasts show signs of nutrient over-enrichment, and scientists predict worsening problems in the years ahead. Clean Coastal Waters explains technical aspects of nutrient over-enrichment and proposes both immediate local action by coastal managers and a longer-term national strategy incorporating policy design, classification of affected sites, law and regulation, coordination, and communication. Highlighting the Gulf of Mexico's "Dead Zone," the Pfiesteria outbreak in a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, and other cases, the book explains how nutrients work in the environment, why nitrogen is important, how enrichment turns into over-enrichment, and why some environments are especially susceptible. Economic as well as ecological impacts are examined. In addressing abatement strategies, the committee discusses the importance of monitoring sites, developing useful models of over-enrichment, and setting water quality goals. The book also reviews voluntary programs, mandatory controls, tax incentives, and other policy options for reducing the flow of nutrients from agricultural operations and other sources.