Watershed Perturbations and Water Quality

摘要

Source water quality management is an important issue in the overall process of producing potable water. In some cases a utility may benefit from watershed control, resulting in the maintenance of relatively stable water quality. In many others that opportunity does not directly exist, and source water quality could be affected by anthropogenic activities, including some level of unplanned water reuse or nonpoint pollution. In addition, the effects of climate change, including increased frequency of forest fires and algae blooms, will exacerbate the problem. Overall, these effects can be described in terms of natural and anthropogenic perturbations that may impact the source water quality.There has been an increased level of interest on the part of water utilities and state agencies to understand these watershed perturbations and to learn how to respond1 to or manage them. For example, in 1998 the US Environmental Protection Agency proposed