Publication Date:
2021-06-27
Description:
Congress established a legal imperative to restore the quality of our surface waters when it enacted the Clean Water Act in 1972. The act requires that existing uses of coastal waters such as swimming and shellfishing be protected and restored. Enforcement of this mandate is frequently measured in terms of the ability to swim and harvest shellfish in tidal creeks, rivers, sounds, bays, and ocean beaches. Public-health agencies carry out comprehensive water-quality sampling programs to check for bacteria contamination in coastal areas where swimming andshellfishing occur. Advisories that restrict swimming and shellfishing are issued when sampling indicates thatbacteria concentrations exceed federal health standards. These actions place these coastal waters on the U.S.Environmental Protection Agencies’ (EPA) list of impaired waters, an action that triggers a federal mandate toprepare a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) analysis that should result in management plans that will restoredegraded waters to their designated uses.When coastal waters become polluted, most people think that improper sewage treatment is to blame. Water-qualitystudies conducted over the past several decades have shown that improper sewage treatment is a relatively minorsource of this impairment. In states like North Carolina, it is estimated that about 80 percent of the pollutionflowing into coastal waters is carried there by contaminated surface runoff. Studies show this runoff is the result of significant hydrologic modifications of the natural coastal landscape.There was virtually no surface runoff occurring when the coastal landscape was natural in places such as NorthCarolina. Most rainfall soaked into the ground, evaporated, or was used by vegetation. Surface runoff is largely anartificial condition that is created when land uses harden and drain the landscape surfaces. Roofs, parking lots,roads, fields, and even yards all result in dramatic changes in the natural hydrology of these coastal lands, andgenerate huge amounts of runoff that flow over the land’s surface into nearby waterways. (PDF contains 3 pages)
Description:
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
Description:
U.S. EPA Coastal Management Branch
Description:
U.S. Geolgocial Survey
Description:
NOAA Sea Grant
Keywords:
Conservation
;
Pollution
;
Sociology
;
Aquaculture
;
Environment
;
TCS22
Repository Name:
AquaDocs
Type:
conference_item
Format:
application/pdf
Format:
application/pdf
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