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Web-based Communication of Water Quality Issues and Potential Solution Exploration
Citation:
Best, Elly, L. Yeghiazarian, T. Whiteaker, A. Teklitz, A. Safwat, AND G. Yang. Web-based Communication of Water Quality Issues and Potential Solution Exploration. Presented at 9th National Monitoring Conference- Working together for clean water, Cincinnati, OH, April 28 - May 02, 2014.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public
Description:
Many United States water bodies are impaired, i.e., do not meet applicable water quality standards. Pollutants enter water bodies from point sources (PS) and non-point sources (NPS). Loadings from PS are regulated by the Clean Water Act and permits limit them. Loadings from NPS are not regulated, and can be reduced by education and changes in human behavior. In rural areas, nutrients and sediments are the leading pollutants originating largely from NPS. Poorly quantified loads of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) travel downstream to estuaries, enabling eutrophication, leading to anoxic zones and fish kills. We have developed a rapid and transferable modeling framework for estimating pollutant loadings and transport in watersheds, under various conditions of land use, using a minimum amount of monitoring data. This framework also enables the mapping of water quality standard exceedance risk, and estimating the potential effects of conservation/restoration/altered management (CRAM) implementation to decrease loads and standard exceedance risk. A probabilistic risk approach is followed. This framework runs within an ArcGIS environment. Initial applications to be presented include the watersheds of the East Fork of the Little Miami River, OH, and the Tippecanoe River, IN, where partnerships between EPA, State, and stakeholders work together to solve NPS-related water quality issues. The framework can be used in support of the TMDL process, i.e., prioritization of watersheds for evaluation, the evaluation process itself, and for exploration of the potential benefits of CRAM type, areal coverage and geographical distribution to reduce loads. We expect that this framework will be useful to many users, because of its scientific basis and future accessibility as a web-based map and –later on- geoprocessing service-application, and availability as a downloadable package. Intended users are: (1) Staff of federal, state, and local agencies; (2) Decision-makers for municipalities, counties, states, and regions; (3) Students in schools, colleges and universities; (4) Interested public.
