Water Quality by You-Gan Wang (Editor)Water quality is fundamental for our health and affects the environment we share with other animals including marine, freshwater and terrestrial species. Water quality is often managed based on indicators for levels of bacteria and other chemical/physical contents. To assist in better management and monitoring of water quality, this book provides an overview of state of the art assessments of water quality; with an understanding how water quality is affected, and improving water quality for irrigation, drinking and recreation activities.
ISBN: 9781624171116
Publication Date: 2013-02-25
Water Quality by Kudret Ertuð; Ilker MirzaWater quality is the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance can be assessed. The most common standards used to assess water quality relate to drinking water, safety of human contact, and for health of ecosystems. The vast majority of surface water on the planet is neither potable nor toxic. This remains true even if sea water in the oceans (which is too salty to drink) isn't counted. Another general perception of water quality is that of a simple property that tells whether water is polluted or not. In fact, water quality is a very complex subject, in part because water is a complex medium intrinsically tied to the ecology of the Earth. Industrial pollution is a major cause of water pollution, as well as runoff from agricultural areas, urban stormwater runoff and discharge of treated and untreated sewage (especially in developing countries). This book gathers the latest research from around the globe in this field.
ISBN: 9781607416333
Publication Date: 2009-10-01
Surface Water Quality by Ruth Patrick; Faith Douglass; Drew M. Palavage; Paul M. StewartAddressing ecologists, legislators, lawyers, and industrialists alike, Ruth Patrick asks what has been accomplished with the millions of dollars spent on upgrading our surface waters. Has the water improved in spite of the fact that the crayfish, snails, and algae are not those that one would expect to find in natural rivers and estuaries? To evaluate the success of environmental laws over the past two decades, the author examines the aquatic life of river systems in the Delaware Valley, Texas, and Georgia--the only areas in the United States where she found enough biological data to determine trends over time. Although tracing the impact of environmental laws is difficult, Patrick found that for these three water systems the results were generally positive. However, if society as a whole wants effective environmental legislation, organizations must take on a more systematic and orderly approach to data gathering. Patrick argues that in monitoring the waters, one must study protozoa, algae, and worms as well as fish, oysters, and shrimp; one must track amounts of metal as well as low concentrations of oxygen. In proposing options for the future, the author predicts that the cost of such monitoring will be higher than present expenditures, but the cost of lax control will be even greater. Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
ISBN: 9780691087696
Publication Date: 1992-06-23
Mississippi River Water Quality and Interstate Collaboration by Mississippi River Water Quality Science and Interstate Collaboration CommitteeSummary of a Workshop on Mississippi River Water Quality Science and Interstate Collaboration summarizes presentations and discussions of Mississippi River and basin water quality management, monitoring, and evaluation programs that took place at a workshop that was held in St. Louis on November 18-19, 2013. The workshop examined a wide array of challenges and progress in water quality monitoring and evaluation in states along the Mississippi River corridor, and provided a forum for experts from U.S. federal agencies, the Mississippi River states, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to share and compare monitoring and evaluation experiences from their respective organizations.
ISBN: 9780309304849
Publication Date: 2014-09-06
Achieving Water Quality Standards Through the Use of Total Maximum Daily Loads by Valarie WatkinsThe Clean Water Act (CWA) contains a number of complex and interrelated elements of overall water quality management. Foremost is the requirement in Section 303 that states establish ambient water quality standards for water bodies, consisting of the designated use or uses of a water body (eg: recreational, public water supply, or industrial water supply) and the water quality criteria which are necessary to protect the use or uses. Standards are then used to determine which waters must be cleaned up, how much effluent may be discharged, and what is needed for protection. Through permitting, states or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) impose wastewater discharge limits on individual industrial and municipal facilities to ensure that water quality standards are attained. However, Congress recognised in the act that, in many cases, pollution controls implemented by industry and cities would be insufficient to attain and maintain water quality standards, due to pollutant contributions from other unregulated sources. This book discusses the Clean Water Act and the pollutant total maximum daily loads, as well as the changes needed if the EPA program is to help fulfil the nation's water quality goals.