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Watershed Management
Goal 2: Protecing America's Waters
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Introduction
Water quality research by EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) is conducted along interconnected tracks:
- Fate and Transport – improving methods for characterizing pollutant transport and fate in surface and intersecting groundwaters
- Management Strategies – developing integrated management strategies
- Decision-Support Systems – quantifying the benefits of management actions in terms of real environmental outcomes
Fate and Transport
The Watershed Management Research program develops methods for improving transport and fate characterization, including:
- Developing techniques (called microbial source tracking) for tracking human and nonhuman pathogens in watersheds
- Studying natural assimilation of pollutants by streams (This work is done at NRMRL’s Experimental Stream Facility.)
- Conducting integrated water quality, quantity, and ecology monitoring studies in Shepherd Creek and elsewhere
Management Strategies
Integrated management strategies are used to develop improved restoration techniques for aquatic and riparian ecosystems (including wetlands), and to select, prioritize, and distribute management practices within a watershed framework. Research on selecting and implementing cost-effective watershed management strategies involves:
- Modeling the selection and placement of best management practices (BMPs) in watersheds
- Developing frameworks for planning and implementing water quality trading using wetlands
Research is also conducted on characterizing the watershed benefits of management strategy implementation through field studies and development of water quality monitoring protocols. Measuring results brings research from the three tracks together and quantifies the benefits of integrated management strategies in a verifiable, reproducible, and transferable manner. The program is currently researching water quantity issues on a watershed scale and working to more fully integrate the results with water quality research in the future.
Decision-Support Systems
In the area of decision-support systems, NRMRL is the lead for supporting the Office of Water and the Office of Environmental Information in developing Watershed Central. This one-stop Web site provides the real-world technical tools and information for developing and implementing watershed management plans for the protection and remediation of surface waters.
Environmental Issue or Problem
Each of us lives in a watershed. A watershed is the total land area and water bodies that drain into a single river or lake system, and/or is the source of groundwater recharge to that river or lake system. Because a river and the land around it are connected, healthy lands mean healthy streams. Reducing watershed pollution requires managing diverse activities including lawn care and gardening, farming, land clearing, mining, treating sewage and wastewater, handling and disposing of trash, and limiting industrial and automotive air pollution. Watersheds are important because they determine the source of your drinking water.
Long-Term Goal and Annual Performance Goals Addressed
Water Quality Research Multi-Year Plan 2009–2014 (PDF) (55 pp, 552 KB, About PDF)
Contact
Alice Gilliland
Assistant Laboratory Director, Water