Nonpoint Source Pollution Issues

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.

If you work in the water quality management field, you know the challenges of monitoring and controlling pollutants in our water supply. The increasing problem of agricultural nonpoint source pollution requires complex solutions. Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution: Watershed Management and Hydrology covers the latest techniques and methods of managing large watershed areas, with an emphasis on controlling non-point source pollution, especially from agricultural run-off. Written by leading experts, the book includes topics such as: nitrate and phosphorus pollution, pesticide contamination, erosion and sedimentation, water-table management, and watershed management. The authors discuss the effects of agricultural run-off - one of the most intransigent problems now faced by environmental engineers and hydrologists. They explore each issue with an eye towards the integrated management of water quality and water resources over a defined area or region. This single-source reference gives you a complete understanding of the whats, whys, and hows of nonpoint source pollution - and more importantly of how to monitor and manage it. Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution: Watershed Management and Hydrology provides a broad but detailed overview that helps you to comprehend the intricacies of the problem and puts you on the path to finding the answers.

Directions of diffuse pollution research and Best Management Practices are evolving, and effective and affordable methods of control are being developed to handle the abatement of toxic pollutants from atmospheric deposition, and urban and agricultural runoff. This book provides a useful manual covering the most important topics and solutions of the diffuse pollution problem with emphasis on urban sources and abatement.