evidence of improvement

E. Ann Clark, Associate Professor (aclark@plant.uoguelph.ca)
Thu, 26 Nov 1998 12:44:57 EST

Folks: One of my research areas is livestock:watercourse
interactions, and one of the issues that I cannot seem to come to
terms with is how much of an improvement is actually achieved by
various improvement/intervention schemes for improving
downstream water quality. I'm specifically interested in non point
source types of contamination - not industrial effluent or sewage
treatment plants, but diffuse sources, like uncontrolled cattle
access, tile drainage, and septic systems.

Let me further restrict the focus to downstream water quality only -
I'm not looking for information on habitat, biodiversity, streambank
stability, or any of the other things that can be influenced by
livestock. Just water quality, using any one of a number of
parameters such as coliforms, cryptosporidia, P, sediment, or any
other type of contaminant that will have to be dealt with (at a cost)
by downstream water treatment facilities before humans can drink the
water.

Can anyone can direct me to a source of credible information on
monitoring watershed-scale improvements in water quality in response
to specific managerial interventions, as exclusionary fencing,
reinforced crossings, manure management practices (incl. containment
and/or timing of application), or correction of malfunctioning septic
systems. Many practices are recommended - or required - of
producers, but I haven't been able to identify much in the way of
information showing that once the recommended practices are followed,
it actually makes a big enough impact to show up in downstream water
quality.

Can someone help me out with this? thanks in advance - Ann

ACLARK@plant.uoguelph.ca
Dr. E. Ann Clark
Associate Professor
Crop Science
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON N1G 2W1
Phone: 519-824-4120 Ext. 2508
FAX: 519 763-8933
http://www.oac.uoguelph.ca/www/CRSC/faculty/eac.htm

To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with "unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".