Chapter 16. Chapter 16: Water Pollution
What are some of the best management practices...?
Guiding Question 16.5
What are some of the best management practices that could reduce nonpoint source pollution in areas like the Chesapeake Bay watershed?
Why You Should Care
The Chesapeake Bay is a watershed with a complex mix of agricultural, urban/suburban, and industrial sources of water pollution. Each produces a different combination of nutrient and toxic water pollution and has different best management practices. In order to restore the Chesapeake Bay, all three will have to help minimize damage and promote regrowth and repair of the bay ecosystem.
The challenge to this regrowth is two-fold. First, we must set baselines with biological and physical data from streams and rivers over the course of years. Any changes to those data will help us identify changes (both positive and negative) quickly. Second, we must start creating BMPs that everyone adopts (this spreads the cost across the whole population). The first is relatively easy; the second is much more difficult, as BMPs range from lower lawn fertilizer usage (easy) to limiting fossil fuel usage (difficult).
Test Your Vocabulary
Choose the correct term for each of the following definitions:
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| The cloudiness of the water. | |
| Easy-to-see (not microscopic) arthropods, such as insects, that live on the stream bottom. | |
| Sampling an area to see what lives there as a tool to determine how healthy the area is. | |
| Runoff area that is planted with water-tolerant plants to slow runoff and promote infiltration. |
1.
Stormwater is precipitation that moves too quickly to be soaked into soil. This runoff cannot be slowed by which of the following?
| A. |
| B. |
| C. |
| D. |
4.
Chesapeake Bay was once renowned for its fish and crab harvests. Today, those harvests have decreased by over 70%. Which of the following strategies would increase harvests in the future?
| A. |
| B. |
| C. |
| D. |
Short-Answer Questions
The Cuyahoga River winds through northeastern Ohio and meets Lake Erie just outside of Cleveland. It is a relatively small watershed (about 800 square miles) and has an extensive system of canals that were key to the development of this region starting in the mid-1800s. Extensive pollution from industry and wastewater are documented, and research from 1968 (a year before the famous fire) details a river with sewage and a heavy oil slick forming a floating layer several inches thick throughout the stretch in Cleveland.
The passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972 was aided by these fires, and the Cuyahoga received a good deal of the initial focus. In 1998, the EPA recognized the Cuyahoga as both an American Heritage River (due to its vastly improved state) and one of the Great Lakes Areas of Concern (for its continuing issues with stagnation).
Today, the greatest threats to the Cuyahoga are dams along the river that control spring flooding and that are also a part of the historic canal system. These dams concentrate nutrient pollution, urban runoff, and sewage overflows. Threats to the Cuyahoga remain a complicated combination of development, diversity, and a shifting economy.
1) Cleveland’s shift away from industrial manufacturing (it is part of the “Rust Belt” cities) to a more service-based economy has helped clean up the river. Based on less canal transport and water quality, why does removing the dams improve water quality?
2) Two dams in smaller towns upstream have proportionally larger impact, and the Ohio branch of the EPA mandated that the towns decrease the impact. One town decided to remove the dam to create a scenic river overlook by a previously hidden waterfall. Who should pay for these dam removals?
3) The largest remaining dam on the Cuyahoga is being developed as a hydropower plant for a local electric streetcar system. Which is more important for environmental quality: clean hydropower for public transport OR a healthier river that can break down runoff better?
4) Even if Cleveland’s industrial sites limit their pollution to very low levels, the watershed still drains from large areas of farmland in northeastern Ohio. These nonpoint sources release water that leaves Cleveland’s reputation of polluted rivers intact. How could Cleveland residents convince upstream farmers to help clean up the Cuyahoga?
2) The Clean Water Act is a federal law, but enforcement is on a state level. Removal of the dams was ordered by Ohio, so the state should probably pay for dam removal, at least in part.
3) It depends mostly on what the local community values more. Clean public transport affects everyone who uses it, so if few people will use it, then it isn’t that great a choice. Clean water affects everyone who looks at it, walks along it, or fishes in it. Given the river’s negative public image, local folks may not use it or fish in it. Public support or a referendum may be the only way to determine which plan makes more sense.
4) Farmers who are releasing nutrient pollution need to be aware of what they are doing and what the costs are for their pollution. Cleveland could create a water-sampling program to identify which farms are creating the nutrient pollution. It could also be helpful to involve farmers with any positive recognition and reward for contributing to Cleveland’s revival.
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