Urban Stormwater Runoff Management Practices Catalogue For Nonpoint Source Pollution Prevention And Water Quality Protection In New York State

In 1997, New York City adopted a mammoth watershed agreement to protect its drinking water and avoid filtration of its large upstate surface water supply. Shortly thereafter, the NRC began an analysis of the agreement's scientific validity. The resulting book finds New York City's watershed agreement to be a good template for proactive watershed management that, if properly implemented, will maintain high water quality. However, it cautions that the agreement is not a guarantee of permanent filtration avoidance because of changing regulations, uncertainties regarding pollution sources, advances in treatment technologies, and natural variations in watershed conditions. The book recommends that New York City place its highest priority on pathogenic microorganisms in the watershed and direct its resources toward improving methods for detecting pathogens, understanding pathogen transport and fate, and demonstrating that best management practices will remove pathogens. Other recommendations, which are broadly applicable to surface water supplies across the country, target buffer zones, stormwater management, water quality monitoring, and effluent trading.

90 charts and tables.

Directions of diffuse pollution research and Best Management Practices are evolving, and effective and affordable methods of control are being developed to handle the abatement of toxic pollutants from atmospheric deposition, and urban and agricultural runoff. This book provides a useful manual covering the most important topics and solutions of the diffuse pollution problem with emphasis on urban sources and abatement.