Dupage County Watershed Analysis

The goals for the West Saginaw Bay Watershed are based on the past studies conducted in the watershed. The goals are aimed at protecting the water quality and wildlife habitat and address the resource concerns of the watershed. Milestones were identified indicating the steps needed to reach the objective. Implementing most objectives requires a combination of three types of activities:

Clean water is both a necessary part of continued human survival as well as an economic good , and planning for its continued use is an important part of maintaining a healthy society. The Great Lakes, which contain 21% of the world’s fresh surface water, are a critical water source in the American Midwest and Canada. While Lake Erie is the smallest of these lakes in terms of its water volume, it still is important for the large population living in its watershed. Approximately twelve million people, one third of the total population of the entire Great Lakes basin, live in the over 20,000 miles of Lake Erie’s watershed (Environmental Protection Agency, 2015).

If this continues to happen as it is, we will continue to lose quality water. We will also lose a large amount of water because of pipes bursting, and these are just vague descriptions of what’ll happen. For future generations, we must fix this problem right away. With our solution, we believe that we can move one big step closer to a perfect watershed; informing students as well as installing more sanitary bins and posters will help them grow up knowing what (and what not) to do to make sure we have a healthy watershed. With funding from Caring For Our Watersheds, we can implement our plan and begin to take real action. Tomorrow is depending on

Stream flow is discharge; it is the measurement of a volume of water that travels past a specific point in a fixed duration (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). Discharge alters depending on the weather, month and nearby events such as erosion (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). It is important because it influences the water quality, habitat and organism availability (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). Large discharges indicate a swift flow of large amounts of water, thus spilt pollutants (i.e. from runoff) are heavily diluted and will cause little harm to the stream (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). On the other hand, stream velocity is the stream’s speed, and like discharge, it also determines the streams living conditions because high velocity allows sediments to stay suspended without disturbing bottom habitats (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). Unfortunately, both stream velocity and discharge were slow when analysed. This may be because of the rainstorm on Wednesday, March 29th that caused the stream to drain rapidly and cause the stream to fall the day after (United States Environmental Protection Agency,

Our planet is filled with ailing rivers and lakes. The Cuyahoga River reminds us just how things can get. But it also reminds us what we can achieve if we come together and take bold action to restore and protect our waters.

A watershed is the big pool of water that a certain region gets is source of water from. This can include ponds, rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. The watershed is shared between humans and wildlife. We get all of our water from it, which includes anything from drinking water to the water we shower and bathe in. The watershed that we live in is the Cache la Poudre River watershed. This watershed “produces approximately 274,000 acres of water” (Northern Water). That is enough to provide for three major cities: Windsor, Fort Collins, and Greeley.

Everyone on this planet lives in a watershed for a reason. A watershed is an area of land where all the water is drained into one body of water. Watersheds are created by high points which create a natural divide. An example of a watershed created by high points would be the Swiss Alps. The Swiss Alps lead the precipitation into large bodies of water using tributaries in this order; springs, creeks, rivers, lakes/oceans. The water flows from the smallest bodies, to large bodies of water. Tributaries are rivers or streams that flow into a larger body of water like a lake. My local watershed which is the Etobicoke Creek watershed has two primary tributaries; Little Etobicoke Creek and Spring Creek. Since water doesn’t flow upwards, because of

Management systems are put in place in order to maintain and protect the watersheds and the communities that reside in them (Smucker, 2016). One way that was thought to help watersheds was through community-based watershed management. This not only allows for the public to have a say on local development, but it also allows for further education on their importance (Rhoads, 1999). A study done at the Virginia Commonwealth University showed that the people would be more apt to get involved in the care and preservation of their local water systems if they were educated and aware of the state of degradation to their watershed (Forsythe et al., 2004). They go on to explain that people find it hard to care for an environment that they know nothing about (Forsyth et al., 2004). Working together to reach a common goal of preserving and protecting their local watershed may give them a sense of community (Platt, 2006). It seems that the majority of studies show that communities who are educated on the matters of watershed protection feel closer to the issue and are more likely to

The City of Davenport, Public Works is writing to request placement on an upcoming Principal’s Meeting Agenda in order to present a proposed Davenport Community School District all 6th Grade Watershed Field Trip. Please find information supporting this request below.

Thanks to the Clean Water Act, we have come a long way from the days of rivers catching fire. The Clean Water Act required industries and municipalities to filter out wastes before they reached the water. The culprits of yesterday, factories and sewage treatment plants, are largely under control. Additionally, those “point sources” of pollution were easy to identify and target because they generally discharged pollutants directly into the water. However, much of our assessed surface waters are still impaired since they do not meet ambient water quality standards. Today’s sources of water pollution, “nonpoint sources,” are more discrete and therefore harder to control. Mainly, this insidious form of pollution takes the shape of “runoff

he background of the nearest watershed became one of the first rivers to be set in Watersheds are important because we can use the water for many things. Watershed is water that drains into the land and ends up in one body of water. Watersheds can be described as a funnel which drains the water into the nearest body of water. It happens when it goes through the ground into creeks and streams and eventually an ocean. We all depend on a healthy watershed. ‘’The cache la poudre river watershed drains approximately 1,056 square miles.’’ www.northernwater.org.

With an already incredibly small percentage of water available to drink (about 1%), the issue of water quality came into focus. In the 1970’s, a “Green Revolution” raised concerns about the possible pollution of the drinking water supply. In 1972, the federal government adopted the Clean Water Act with its main goals being to “eliminate the discharge of pollutants, maintain the policy that protects the public from cancer-causing pollutants and other toxic poisons, maintain the concept that industry must use the best available technology to control pollution, and to provide an adequate funding for publicly owned treatment plans” (EPA). These goals were established for the sole purpose of keeping a close eye on the quality of America’s water. This Act was the first major step towards controlling the nation’s pollution problems with reference to water. The EPA set up 4 standards to water quality. They are as follows: “Designated uses of the water body, such as recreation, water supply, etc, water quality criteria to protect designated uses, an anti-degradation policy to maintain and protect existing uses and high quality waters, and general policies addressing implementation issues such as variances” (EPA). These standards are in place throughout the country, and the better they are enforced, the likelihood that water ways will not suffer from pollution

Clean and abundant water provides the groundwork for flourishing communities. Still, as a nation we are heading towards a national water crisis. Ocean and marine dumping, leaking chemicals, dredging, and run-off all participate in the depletion in quality water in the United States and little to nothing is being done to stop it. Our country is struggling with keeping an abundance of clean water to support its life, yet its life needs uncontaminated water to survive. There are many easy solutions to jolt a foundation in attacking this problem, but the lethargy of American’s are stopping them.

The Clean Water Act, otherwise known as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, was passed in 1972 and aims to maintain the integrity of the United States’ waters by regulating the discharge of pollutants and maintaining quality standards for surface waters. One important type of regulation under the Clean Water Act is of nonpoint pollution sources, sources of water pollution that do not diffuse from a single identifiable source including agricultural pesticides, animal wastes and other components of runoff or groundwater. Because nonpoint source pollution, or NPS, is diffused by a variety of widespread avenues, from rainfall to wind, it accounts for a majority of water pollution and is extremely difficult and complex to regulate. The

By describing the distinctive nature of the spatial and temporal variations in the quality of rivers and streams, water quality examination results can give an enhanced comprehension of the ecological conditions and help policy makers build up priorities for sustainable water management (Cooper et al., 2002 and Antonopoulos et al., 2001). Watershed-scale examination of water quality variables can demonstrate the changing effect of different anthropogenic exercises in various watersheds and sub-watershed as one moves from the headwaters to downstream. Reports on stormwater quality management program have demonstrated that Greensboro at present faces water contamination issues in its primary streams and lakes (Greensboro Water Resources Dept., Report, 2013). Water quality at the greater part of the frequently checked stations in significant rivers and streams in the area are underneath the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) norms suitable for human utilization and amphibian life manageability including observed locales along the Buffalo Creeks and Reedy Fork Creeks. The state of the water in Greensboro Rivers and streams is identified with land use and the quality and amount of the precipitation washing off the landscape. In an urban setting like Greensboro, the prevalent elements deciding the water quality attributes of rivers and streams are the (toxins washing