Handbook of Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Operations - Chapter 16 pdf

Watershed Protection

Watershed protection is one of the barriers in the multiple
barrier approach to protecting source water. In fact, water-
shed protection is the primary barrier, the first line of
defense against contamination of drinking water at its
source. Ideally, under the general concept of “quality in,
means quality out,” a protected watershed ensures that
surface runoff and inflow to the source waters occur within
a pristine environment.

Protecting watersheds is not only critical to humans in
ensuring their continued growth in numbers but is critical
to their very survival. Simply put, protecting watersheds is
a challenge that we must meet. While it is true that envi-
ronmental protection programs in the U.S. have gone a
long way toward improving water quality during the last
quarter century, yet, many challenges remain. According
to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as of
1994, nearly 40 percent of surveyed waters in the U.S.
remain too polluted for fishing, swimming and other uses.
The leading causes of impairment found in the survey
include silt, sewage, disease-causing bacteria, fertilizer,
toxic metals, oil and grease.*

16.1 INTRODUCTION

Water regulates population growth, influences world
health and living conditions, and determines biodiversity.
For thousands of years, people have tried to control the

flow and quality of water. Water provided resources and
a means of transportation for development in some areas.
Even today, the presence or absence of water is critical in
determining how we can use land.
Yet, despite this long experience in water use and
water management, humans often fail to manage water
well. Sound water management was pushed aside in rapid,
never-ending economic development in many countries.
Often, optimism about the applications of technology
(e.g., dam building, wastewater treatment, or irrigation
measures) exceeded concerns for, or even interest in, envi-
ronmental shortcomings. Pollution was viewed as the
inevitable consequence of development — the price that
must be paid to achieve economic progress.
Clearly, we now have reached the stage of our devel-
opment when the need for management of water systems
is apparent, beneficial, and absolutely imperative. Land
use and activities in the watershed directly impact raw
water quality. Effective watershed management improves
raw water quality, controls treatment costs, and provides
additional health safeguards. Depending on goals, water-
shed management can be simple or complex.
This chapter discusses the need for watershed man-
agement based on a multiple barrier basis and provides a
brief overview of the range of techniques and approaches
that can be used to investigate the biophysical, social, and
economic forces affecting water and its use.
Water utility directors are charged with providing
potable water in a quantity and quality to meet the public’s
demand. They are also charged with providing effective

management on a holistic basis of the entire water supply
system; such management responsibility includes proper
management of the area’s watershed.

Key Point:

Integrated water management means putting
all of the pieces together, including considering
social, environmental, and technical aspects.

16.2 CURRENT ISSUES IN
WATER MANAGEMENT

Note:

Much of the information provided in this sec-
tion is adapted from Viessman, W., Jr., Water
management issues for the nineties,

Water
Resources Bulletin

,



26, 883–981, 1991.
Remarkable consensus exists among worldwide experts
over the current issues confronted by waterworks manag-
ers and others. These issues include the following:

1. Water availability, requirements, and use
a. Protection of aquatic and wetland habitat
management of extreme events (droughts,
floods, etc.)
b. Excessive extractions from surface and
groundwater
c. Global climate change
d. Safe drinking water supply
e. Waterborne commerce
2. Water quality
a. Coastal and ocean water quality
b. Lake and reservoir protection and restoration
c. Water quality protection, including effective
enforcement of legislation
16

* U.S. EPA,

Watersheds.

Accessed at />shed/framewaork/ch1.html November 2, 2002

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Handbook of Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Operations

d. Management of point- and nonpoint-source
pollution

e. Impacts on land/water/air relationships
f. Health risks
3. Water management and institutions
a. Coordination and consistency
b. Capturing a regional perspective
c. Respective roles of federal and state/provin-
cial agencies
d. Respective roles of projects and programs
e. Economic development philosophy that
should guide planning
f. Financing and cost sharing
g. Information and education
h. Appropriate levels of regulation and dereg-
ulation
i. Water rights and permits
j. Infrastructure
k. Population growth
l. Water resources planning, including:
i. Consideration of the watershed as an
integrated system
ii. Planning as a foundation for, not a reac-
tion to, decision making
iii. Establishment of dynamic planning pro-
cesses incorporating periodic review
and redirection
iv. Sustainability of projects beyond con-
struction and early operation
v. A more interactive interface between
planners and the public
vi. Identification of sources of conflict as

an integral part of planning
vii. Fairness, equity, and reciprocity between
affected parties

16.3 WHAT IS A WATERSHED?

At the simplest level, we all live in a watershed — the
area that drains to a common waterway, such as a lake,
estuary, wetland, river, stream, or even an ocean — and
our individual actions can directly affect it. More specif-
ically, a

watershed

is a protected, reserved area, usually
distant from the treatment plant, where natural or artificial
lakes are used for water storage, natural sedimentation,
and seasonal pretreatment, with or without disinfection.
A watershed is also defined as a collecting area into which
water drains. The area of land encompassed could be tiny
or immense. The size of a watershed, and the direction of
flow of its rivers, is determined by landforms. Watersheds
are associated with surface water (usually fed by gravity)
to distinguish them from groundwater (usually fed by
pumping).

Note:

EPA’s watershed approach is to provide for an
“integrated, holistic strategy for more effectively

restoring and protecting aquatic ecosystems and
protecting human health (e.g., drinking water
supplies and fish consumption).” (U.S. EPA,
Committing EPA’s Water Program to Advancing
the Watershed Approach, />owow/watershed/memo.html. Accessed Decem-
ber 2002.)

16.4 WATER QUALITY IMPACT

Generally, for a typical river system water quality is
impacted by about 60% nonpoint pollution, 21% munic-
ipal discharge, 18% industrial discharge, and about 1%
sewer overflows. Of the nonpoint pollution, about 67% is
from agriculture, 18% is from urban, and 15% is from
other sources.
Land use directly impacts water quality. The impact of
land use on water quality is clearly evident in Table 16.1.
From the waterworks operator point of view, water
quality issues for nutrient contamination can be summa-
rized quite simply:
1. Nutrients + Algae = Taste and Odor Problems
2. Nutrients + Algae + Macrophytes + Decay =
Trihalomethane Precursors

16.5 WATERSHED PROTECTION
AND REGULATIONS

The Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act Reauthor-
ization addresses source water protection. Implementation
of regulatory compliance requirements (with guidance pro-

vided by the U.S. Department of Health) is left up to state
and local health department officials to implement.
Water protection regulations in force today not only
provide guidance and regulation for watershed protection,
but they also provide additional benefits for those tasked
with managing drinking water utilities.
The typical drinking water utility (which provides safe
drinking water to the consumer) has two choices in water
pollution control: “Keep it out or take it out.” The “keep
it out” part pertains to watershed management; if the water
supply contains contaminants, they must be removed by
treatment, “take it out.” Utility directors and waterworks
managers are concerned with controlling treatment costs.
An effective watershed management program can reduce
treatment costs by reducing source water contamination.
The “take it out” option is much more expensive and time
consuming than keeping it out in the first place.
Proper watershed management also works to maintain
consumer confidence. If the consumer is aware that the
water source from the area’s watershed is of the highest
quality, then logically, confidence in the quality of the

© 2003 by CRC Press LLC

Watershed Protection

459

water is high. High-quality water also works directly to
reduce public health risks.

16.6 A WATERSHED PROTECTION PLAN

Watershed protection begins with planning. The watershed
protection plan consists of several elements and includes
the need to:
1. Inventory and characterize water sources
2. Identify pollutant sources
3. Assess vulnerability of intake
4. Establish program goals
5. Develop protection strategies
6. Implement program
7. Monitor and evaluate program effectiveness

16.7 RESERVOIR MANAGEMENT
PRACTICES

To ensure an adequate and safe supply of drinking water
for a municipality, watershed management includes proper
reservoir management practices. These practices include
proper lake aeration, harvesting, dredging, and use of algi-
cide. Water quality improvements from lake aeration
include reduced iron, manganese, phosphorus, ammonia,
and sulfide content. Lake aeration also reduces cost of
capital and operation for water supply treatment. Algicide
treatment controls algae, which in turn reduces taste and
odor problems. The drawback of using algicides is that
they are successful for only a brief period.

16.8 WATERSHED MANAGEMENT

PRACTICES

Watershed management practices include land acquisi-
tions, land use controls, and best management practices
(BMPs). Land acquisition refers to the purchase of water-
shed lands — those land areas that form the watershed for
a particular locality. The advantage of ownership of lands
included within a particular watershed are obvious; the
owner (in this case, the local utility) has better control of
land use, and thus can effect protective measures for ensur-
ing a quality water supply.
Land use controls (those measures deemed necessary
to protect the watershed from contamination and/or
destruction) vary from location to location. For example,
land use controls may be designed to prohibit mining or
other industrial activities from taking place within the
watershed, for protection of the water supply.
BMPs for watershed management refer specifically to
agriculture, logging, urban, and construction practices.
The chief problem with best management practices is that
they are nonstructural measures. They are often hard to
implement because they require people to change the way
they behave.
In agricultural systems, BMPs may include measures
such as conservation tillage and contour plowing, confined
animal facility management (contain or use waste on-site
and keep animals out of waterways), and appropriate pes-
ticide and herbicide application practices (minimize use
or use alternative chemicals).
Examples of logging BMPs include construction of

streamside buffer zones to protect the watercourse. Log-
ging plans should also incorporate water quality and hab-
itat planning.
Urban BMPs revolve around targeted categories such
as reduction of impervious areas (reducing tarmac, asphalt
covering, and cement covering to allow for precipitation
infiltration), nonstormwater discharges, and proper dis-
posal of residential chemicals.
The primary types of BMPs used include public edu-
cation programs, inspections and enforcement, structural
controls (end-of-pipe solutions that seek to treat or remove
pollution that has already occurred) and preventive options
that are implemented to prevent or reduce the creation of
waste within a process.
Examples of construction BMPs include enforcement
of stormwater pollution plans and inspections. Types of
construction BMPs include erosion and sediment control
(i.e., minimize clearing, stage construction, and stabilize
stockpiles and finished areas) and chemical control (i.e.,

TABLE 16.1
Land Use Directly Impacts Water Quality

Source Sediment Nutrients Viruses, Bacteria Trihalomethane Iron, Manganese

Urban x x x x x
Agriculture x x x x x
Logging x x x x
Industrial x x x x
Septic tanks x x x

Construction x x

Source:

Spellman, F.R.,

The Handbook for Wastewater Operator Certification,

Technomic Publ., Lan-
caster, PA, 2001.

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Handbook of Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Operations

proper storage, handling, application and covering, and
isolation of materials).

16.9 CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS
AND PROBLEMS

16.1. Define watershed.
16.2. Another name for watershed is __________.
16.3. Explain “keep it out” and “take it out.”
16.4. What is the purpose of algicide in reservoir
management?
16.5. Does the acronym BMP mean?

REFERENCE

1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,

Watersheds,

/>Washington, D.C., accessed on Nov. 2, 2002.

© 2003 by CRC Press LLC