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US EPA’s Watershed Management Research Activities
Citation:
TAFURI, A. N. AND R. I. FIELD. US EPA’s Watershed Management Research Activities. Presented at National Science Foundation (NSF) Nanchang University Research Workshop on Environmental Science & Sustainable Development, Nanchang, CHINA, June 21 - 25, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Urban Watershed Management Branch (UWMB) is responsible for developing and demonstrating methods to manage the risk to public health, property and the environment from wet-weather flows (WWF) in urban watersheds. The activities are primarily aimed at restoring surface and ground waters in the context of water quality uses intended for aquatic life and recreation. WWFs include combined sewer overflow (CSO), sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) and non-sewered stormwater runoff. The primary goals of the research are development of: (1) watershed management strategies and associated models integrating areawide WWF control for groundwater and surface water protection; (2) multi-purpose WWF practices including new and retrofit designs for drainage, flood, pollution and erosion and sedimentation control; and, (3) protocols for measuring WWF control program effectiveness. The overall direction of the program is geared to developing novel approaches for controlling WWFs and the integration of watershed-based urban wet-weather controls in mixed land-use watersheds for resolving water-quality impairments, as well as integration with source-water protection for drinking water. In addition, the UWMB is conducting research to address the problems associated with aging water infrastructure, including the development of new and improved approaches for assessing the condition and rehabilitating existing water distribution and wastewater collection systems and for designing new systems using advanced concepts. The presentation will address select projects and products related to these activities, especially the ongoing research activities on best management control technologies for urban stormwater-generated pollution control and aging water infrastructure.