Revised January 1996. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Poor quality water or an inadequate supply of water can take the pleasure from country living. Problems with quantity or quality of domestic water occur all over Oregon.
We describe concepts, rationale, and analytical procedures for characterizing physical habitat in wadeable streams based on raw data generated from methods similar or equal to those of Kaufmann and Robison (in PB99-139156). We provide guidance for calculating measures or indices of stream size and gradient, sinuosity, substrate size and stability,...
Published October 1992. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Contamination of drinking water occurs despite strict regulations, yet few studies
have been conducted to assess the public's perception of risk about drinking water.
The purpose of this study was to assess risk perception associated with drinking water
supplied by small water systems and to determine alternative measures that people...
This dissertation consists of three papers on land use economics and regulation. The first paper focuses on the environmental impacts of land use and their implications for the design on water quality trading policies. The second and third papers address local land use regulations and their impact on land values...
The Western Lake Survey (WLS) of 1985 documented the status of lake water chemistry across the western US and inferred population representations of various subregions and geomorphic units via statistically analyses. Results from this 1985 study indicated that lakes of the Oregon Cascades had the second most pristine and dilute...
Physical, chemical and bacterial water quality parameters of
the upper Wallowa River were sampled periodically between July 2,
1978 and June 9, 1979 at nine stream and lake sampling sites. Water
upstream from Wallowa Lake was typified by low nutrient concentrations
( generally below detectable limits except for nitrates), low....
A model was developed for analysis of the soil water balance of
individual reforestation sites in western Oregon. The numerical
procedure for this model was programmed in compiled BASIC language and
calculations for an entire season are made in about 180 seconds on an
IBM AT microcomputer.
The processes that...
The Tualatin River Basin in Washington County, Oregon has been identified by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) as "Water Quality Limited." Algal blooms have become commonplace in the lower , reaches of. the river during summer months. Phosphorus has been identified as the nutrient upon which to base...
This program explains that urban water pollution comes from a number of common sources, such as automobiles, lawn and garden fertilizer, and pet waste, and explores ways in which citizens can minimize their contribution to such pollution.
Streamflow variability can provide valuable information for nonpoint source
pollution monitoring program planning. The research papers presented in this thesis
examine selected properties of streamflow variability in Oregon to advance its application
in regional planning of water quality monitoring programs. The products of this research
depict Oregon streams by their...
Agronomic research documents a strong correlation
between the level of irrigation water applied and the level
of farm chemicals leached into water bodies. Consequently,
policies that cause farmers to alter irrigation water
management practices are likely to influence water quality.
Water markets are a potentially attractive method of
addressing agriculturally...
The anthropogenic introduction of nutrients to water bodies has been shown to alter the structure and function of natural aquatic ecosystems, yet national EPA lake and reservoir nutrient criteria remain too broad for effective regional water quality management. This study uses a reference site approach to propose numeric nutrient criteria...
Many municipalities throughout western Oregon rely upon forested watersheds as a source for domestic water supply. These watersheds are commonly managed by state or
federal agencies or private corporations for timber production. Activities related to forest management within municipal watersheds have the potential to adversely affect water quality. Timber harvesting...
The Safe Drinking Water Act ensures that public systems provide water that meets health standards. However, no such protection exists for millions of Americans who obtain water from private wells. Concern for safety is warranted as most wells draw from underground aquifers, and studies demonstrate that groundwater is affected by...
Runoff from agricultural lands into Upper Klamath Basin rivers and lakes can
cause water quality problems affecting fish and wildlife. Excessive eutrophication
in Upper Klamath Lake is linked to high nutrient input (particularly phosphorus)
stemming from both lake sediments and watershed tributaries.
On a unit area load basis the Wood...
Few studies, and none in Oregon, have examined the presence and change of water quality parameters over time in popular natural swimming areas. This information is necessary to better understand water quality and risk of illness from either fecal contamination or cross-infection from other swimmers. The purpose of this study...
The Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) site selection protocol was used to generate a random sample of streams throughout the state of Oregon. One hundred and forty-six selected streams were sampled during the summer, low-flow period of 1997. Traditional microbial public health indicators, including heterotrophic plate counts (HPC), total...
Traditional public health bacterial indicators of water quality and the Biolog® system were evaluated to compare their response to other indicators of stream condition with the state of Oregon and between ecoregions (Coast Range, Willamette Valley, Cascades, and Eastern Oregon). Forty-three randomly selected Oregon rivers were sampled during the summer...
The focus of this research was to develop bacterial community indicators of stream sanitary and ecological condition. The first study compared substrate utilization patterns between centrifuged and uncentrifuged split samples. We found a shift in the relative proportion of each group of bacteria following centrifugation, with a marked increased in...
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Bacterial indicators for public health waterquality ................................ 2
Whole
Declared out of print March 2010. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
With congressional passage of the BEACH Act in October of 2000, Coastal and Great Lakes states were mandated to assess coastal recreation waters for the application of ambient water quality standards. This research encompasses two components involved in applying the BEACH Act statues to Oregon. The first component was to...
Three research questions are addressed in this study: (1) To what degree do residents
support/oppose various aspects of water resources protection? (2) What factors explain
residents' attitudes? and, (3) How do attitudes vary between participants and nonparticipants
of place-based groups (watershed councils and neighborhood
associations)? The population of interest is...
The goal of this phase of the study was to develop a model of the Tualatin River incorporating Scoggins Creek and Hagg Lake. This tool will be used in conjunction with a hydrologic model, the EPA HSPF model (Johnson, Imhoff, and Kittle, 1984), to analyze management strategies to improve water...
Vernal pools are ephemeral surface water wetlands with unique hydrology, ecology and species composition. Rare and endemic species rely on vernal pool habitat due to specialization traits the species possess because they are adapted to the extreme conditions. Many vernal pool basins have been topographically and hydrologically altered and are...
Few studies have examined both long-term and fine-scale spatial variations in
water quality of small streams in the Pacific Northwest. As such, a case study was
conducted to determine if current physical and chemical properties of water in three
streams located in the Oregon Coast Range differed from historically measured...
A study of phosphorus loading and water quality implications was conducted for
the Oregon coastal lakes. The study was based on existing data for lake total phosphorus
concentrations and for watershed land uses. A phosphorus mass-balance model was
developed to predict lake total phosphorus concentrations from estimated phosphorus
loading from...
The pages which follow contain the authors responses to a series of comments that were received in response to "A Project to Collect Scientific Data and Provide Evaluation and Recommendations for Alternative Pollution Control Strategies for the Tualatin River Basin, 11 submitted to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)...
In response to Oregon House Bill 3338, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality requested proposals in 1991 to assemble available information on Tualatin River Basin conditions to provide a scientific basis for improving river water quality. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Oregon State University and Portland State University was...
The Tualatin River is a major water resource for Washington County. In its course, the river drains forest lands, farmlands, and urban areas receiving toxic materials from non-point source runoff: Wastewater treatment plant effluents from municipalities and industries also contribute toxic materials to the river. Many materials discharged into the...
This report summarizes the conclusions reached in "A Project to Collect Scientific Data and Provide Evaluation and Recommendations for Alternative Pollution Control Strategies for the Tualatin River Basin."
This study was funded by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality as a grant to the Oregon Water Resources Research Institute on...
The overall goal of this study was to determine if the Tillamook Bay tributaries'
water quality has improved as a result of the Best Management Practices (BMP) installed
at Tillamook County Dairies.
The Rural Clean Water Program (RCWP) was a 10 to 15 year experiment designed to
control agricultural non-point...
The identification of sources of point and nonpoint fecal pollution is difficult to determine. Understanding the sources of fecal organisms in quality limited waters could greatly enhance our ability to restore and protect the water quality and habitat of these systems. Antibiotic resistance patterns of fecal streptococci bacteria were analyzed...
Three studies were conducted related to the measurement and impact of
stream sediment fecal coliform (FC) bacteria on stream water quality. In part one
an enumeration technique for sediment FC was defined and statistically
characterized. This characterization necessitated the development of a sample
splitting mechanism, which was found to split...