Change is the one thing that we can always count on in life. And watersheds are constantly changing, too. Those changes may be natural or human-induced. Natural changes occur because the Earth is dynamic–just watch the weather for occurrences of floods and droughts. Human-induced watershed change falls into a variety of categories such as changes in response to climate change, transitioning from forests to agriculture, and increasing urbanization. In the Change in Your Watershed category, you will read about changes that are occurring in local watersheds. These are changes that are readily observed, if you know what to look for. Constructive comments and feedback are greatly appreciated.
Category Archives: Change in Your Watershed
Lets Investigate Change in My Watershed
Introduction
Change is inevitable in this world, and that includes for all of our own personal watersheds which can either be natural or anthropogenic. No matter what the cause of change is, the consequences of that are unavoidable. Natural changes can be due to an abundance of factors such as change in the season, floods or droughts, the development of land, population increase, etc. that bring both positive and negative consequences. This article goes into depth about the inevitable changes and consequences my watershed is undergoing with pictures and descriptions.
Personal Information About my Watershed
I was able to locate and find information about my watershed by using “StreamStats”. The outlet of my watershed is located in Willimantic, CT along the perimeter of ECSU and Windham Technical High School which is only a block away from my house. Therefore, the percentage of developed land is 100% due to the watershed being located on school campuses and being surrounded by neighborhoods consisting of families and college students. Furthermore, it is predictable to find that 53.6% of the area is impervious. Impervious areas include land covers such as asphalt, grass, or trees that contribute to a significant amount of stormflow during storms. Both school campuses consist of impervious areas. The area that drains to a point on a stream is 2.98 square miles. The mean annual precipitation basin average is 49.797 inches and the average soil permeability is 5.11 inches per hour. The mean basin elevation of my watershed is 367 feet (USGS 2016). I will now continue to discuss physical changes to my watershed I have realized over the course of a few weeks.
Chemical Consequences
I visited my watershed periodically over the past few weeks and noticed a few changes some anthropogenic and natural. The first to discuss is the abundance of litter that has built up in only the past few weeks! There were several red solo cups and drink cans, but the one that caught my attention was the laundry detergent. The laundry detergent is not only non-biodegradable plastic, but it may also contain left over detergent full of chemicals leaking into the watershed. The chemicals in detergent polluting the water can only be blamed on human action of not properly disposing of it. Garbage in watersheds from land-based activities are carried into storm drains, streams, canals, and rivers by wind. The chemicals can cause eutrophication which means the chemicals cause excessive richness of nutrients that have been absorbed in the watershed that result in dense growth of plant life (Turner, 1970) which we can see in Figure 1 slightly and Figure 2. Notice in Figure 1, the outer area of the watershed is shrinking due to the plant life overwhelming the area that is now decaying. You can tell there used to be water there due to the moistness of the soil along the grasses edge. Therefore, the detergent can have partial responsibility for the watershed being choked with algae and other aquatic plant’s decay. Algae grows because of the lack of oxygen that polluted water suffers from. Water rich in nutrients causes the growth of plant life which leads to the decrease of oxygen in the water which is harmful to aquatic life habitats and results in death and decay(Munn and Hamilton, 2003). One indicator of water quality are bioindicators which are organisms that monitor the health of an ecosystem. Therefore, the chemicals that have caused the water to be polluted can result in the death of these crucial organisms. The service these organisms provide is valuable for water quality assessment (Sinay, 2021). Furthermore, chemicals in a watershed can cause the water to become murky which blocks out sunlight. Chemically polluted water can be toxic to humans and animals who drink from the watershed. Unfortunately, it may not only be one watershed impacted by the nutrient enrichment along with the other problems the chemicals may have caused. All of the issues in one contaminated watershed can be brought to downstream watersheds.
Excessive Plant Growth
As touched upon previously excessive growth of plant life can be detrimental to a watershed. As you can see, in Figure 2, the water is extremely shallow which has allowed the plants to overgrow with the possible eutrophication. In the top right corner of Figure 2 there is a pipe that is clogged by the abundance of plant growth and plant decay. When plants that are overgrown start to decay like in Figure 2, it causes the water to have a foul odor and taste. Excessive plant life causes the dissolved oxygen in water to decrease which impacts the habitat of the aquatic life causing them to die and decay in our watersheds (Munn and Hamilton, 2003). As vegetation and decay products accumulate it causes the watershed to become a bog and eventually dry land from the displacement of water (Turner, 1970). The excessive amount of plant nutrients controls the rate of algal growth which directly impacts the rate of eutrophication. Algal blooms lower dissolved oxygen concentrations, alter aquatic food webs, effect appearance, alters taste and odor of the water that causes drinking water and fish flesh to taste bad, and produces toxins that are so potent they poison organisms in the water and on land (Munn and Hamilton, 2003). Conclusively, the overgrowth of vegetation life in aquatic environments has adverse consequences for both aquatic and human life.
Seasonal Change
As we are transitioning from Winter to Spring the watershed is being impacted by the seasonal change. In Figure 2 you can see from the previous colder months there is an excessive amount of decaying plants within the watershed. As air temperature increases, the water temperature increases. As the weather becomes warm the growth of algae is promoted. As the water temperature increases the dissolved oxygen levels decrease. The warm water temperature causes an increase of pathogens, nutrients, and invasive species. In addition, the hot sun increases the rates of evapotranspiration resulting in shrinking of some waterbodies. As the hot season continues an increase of impaired waters will occur which causes difficulty in meeting water quality and drinking water standards. Therefore, the availability and quality of drinking water supplies will reduce (Watershed Academy Web). Water temperature is a key indicator of water quality. The aquatic organisms depend on specific water temperatures and conditions to survive. The aquatic organisms are important because they provide a service that maintains the quality of the watershed (Sinay, 2021). In addition, organisms that decay in the watershed are harmful as discussed previously. Although these are natural consequences, as the weather gets warm we can expect anthropogenic impacts as well. As it gets warmer more families and college students are walking outside especially with their pets. As I was inspecting my watershed for this project I noticed several people and their animals walking on the path alongside the watershed shown in Figure 3. Pathogens and high concentration of nitrogen from animal feces can enter the watershed by direct disposition or a result from overland runoff containing fecal matter. As discussed before, excessive plant growth in watersheds is harmful for a variety of reasons. The release of nutrients from decay of pet waste promotes weed and algae growth (Whitlock 2002). Fecal pollution is contaminating the water with disease-causing organisms called pathogens that can inhabit the gastrointestinal tract of mammals. Ingestion of this contaminated water is responsible for several humans diseases known as fecal-oral route (Santo-Domingo and others, 2008). Therefore, change in temperature results in natural and anthropogenic consequences.
Ecosystem Services
Healthy watersheds provide ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, carbon storage, erosion/ sedimentation control, increased biodiversity, soil formation, wildlife movement corridors, water storage, water filtration, flood control, food, recreation, reduced vulnerability to invasive specials, and many more that are beneficial (United States Environmental Protection, 2021). When a watershed is polluted all of these services are as well. An inevitable issue every watershed faces is stormwater runoff. My watershed being located on a university and high school campus has many hard surfaces with the university roads and school buildings. All stormwater like rain and melting snow does not soak into the ground, but runs off into storm drains that are directly connected with pipes to the closest waterbody with whatever pollution was picked up on the way (Mississippi Watershed Management Organization). Stormwater runoff is a major source of water pollution for any and every watershed. Globally water has been being treated as infinite and of little value for far too long, and water quality and quantity are severely overlooked. For the quality measurement of water there are six main indicators that range of chemical, physical, and biological properties which are dissolved oxygen levels, turbidity, pH levels, bioindicators, nitrate chemicals, and water temperature (Sinay, 2021). From previous discussion depleting dissolved oxygen levels can be caused by a variety of reasons such as eutrophication from polluting chemicals causing plant life overgrowth, algal blooms, and water temperature rising. Dissolved oxygen is essential for humans, plants, and animals. High levels of oxygen in the water is crucial to sustain life. Dissolved oxygen levels in watersheds is a key indicator of the water’s quality (Sinay, 2021). Turbidity measures how clean and clear the water is which depends on the amount of Total Suspended Solids (TSS) such as gravel, sand, silt, clay, and algae. As previously discussed algae grows when there is lack of oxygen in polluted waters, when water temperature increases seasonally, and from decay products. When animals, plants, and algae decay they become suspended solids (Sinay, 2021). While discussing the impact of chemical pollution we touched upon bioindicators and their importance for an ecosystem such as a watershed. Chemically polluted waters can lead to disease or death of organisms including these beneficial bioindicators that provide service by maintaining their environment in the watershed. While discussing how animal waste enters the watershed and the consequences that follow along high concentration of nitrogen was mentioned. High concentration of nitrogen in a watershed is due to the flow of humans and animal waste. The consequences of a watershed having a high concentration of nitrogen include algae growth which we discussed can be harmful and reduces the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water which we know kills aquatic life such as bioindicators (Sinay, 2021). Another key indicator of water quality is the pH level which determines if the water is basic or acidic. The fluctuation of pH levels can be due to acid rain, automobile pollution, agricultural runoff, spills from accidents, overflows from sewers, and other pollutants that are both natural and anthropogenic. Significant changes of pH can negatively impact the water and aquatic life such as bioindicators (Sinay, 2021). Lastly, as we discussed previously water temperature changes as the seasons do. Water temperatures impact dissolved oxygen and vulnerability of organisms, pollution, and disease as we know from previous discussion is detrimental to the watershed. To conclude, the ecosystem services that occur naturally maintain the quality and quantity of our watersheds. Every aspect of a watershed has importance especially the aquatic plants and organisms maintaining their environment, and in the process maintaining our watersheds. It is our responsibility to avoid polluting watersheds so our aquatic plants and organisms continue their ecosystem services.
Conclusion
The changes I observed in my watershed are too common. Although we can not prevent natural causes we are responsible for putting an end to the anthropogenic ones. Correctly disposing garbage and cleaning up pet’s waste are only two simple ways to maintain our watersheds. As we can see, every change has a consequence some good, but the majority bad that I noticed in my own watershed. Aquatic organisms are constantly maintaining their environment and doing their part to maintain our watersheds, and unfortunately it is mostly due to anthropogenic ignorance that their sustainable environments are compromised along with our watersheds. The worst part is this is a chain reaction to all downstream watersheds. Therefore, it is in all of our hands ton maintain our watersheds.
References
Benefits of Healthy Watersheds. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.epa.gov/hwp/benefits-healthy-watersheds
Dunn, M., & Hamilton, P. (2003). New Studies Initiated by the U.S. Geological Survey-Effects of Nutrient Enrichment on Stream Ecosystems. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs11803/
The Effect of Climate Change on Water Resources and Programs. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://cfpub.epa.gov/watertrain/moduleFrame.cfm?parent_object_id=2456&object_id=2459
M. (2020, April 20). Watershed and stormwater basics. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.mwmo.org/learn/watershed-and-stormwater-basics/
Sinay. (2021, May 11). What are the main water quality indicators and parameters? Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://sinay.ai/en/what-are-the-main-indicators-of-water-quality/
Turner, J. (1970, November 01). Laundry detergent: The effect of pollution on lakes and Rivers. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.motherearthnews.com/sustainable-living/nature-and-environment/effect-of-pollution-zmaz70ndzgoe/
USGS, 2016, StreamStats Report for 41.7203, -72.2177, StreamStats Application version 4.3.0, U.S. Geological Survey, accessed March 23, 2022 at https://streamstats.usgs.gov/ss/.
What’s Got the Local Watershed Changing? Sprague, CT
- Pollution
Figure 1a.
Figure 1b.
All my life I have seen different forms of pollution happen with Versailles Pond, people throw trash on the side of the road as they drive by which rolls down the hill, especially once it rains and the steep slope just turns into an absolute mudslide. This trash either lingers on the banks of the watershed or will eventually make it into the watershed itself.
This is a huge problem however because as shown in figure 1b.; Many of these pollutants are not biodegradable and will just sit and rust, eventually leaking harmful chemicals into the soil or water nearby. Not to mention the fact that this metal debris can end up being hazardous to both animal and human lives if anyone was to fall and cut themselves or anything of the sort.
Plastic debris however is different but just as dangerous, the plastic litter can linger for up to six hundred years or more! This can cause local wildlife to possibly ingest these large items such as lighters, straws, plastic bags, etc. Not only that but they could degrade into microplastics which can be ingested by virtually anything, whether it be fish or plankton (Wreg, How does littering affect the environment? 2019). These microplastics are particularly dangerous because they can affect both wildlife and humans, the lifespan of fish and animals is shortened through direct ingestion however, with us consuming the fish we end up being exposed to toxic chemicals or materials such as adhesives, lubricants, harmful dyes or possible metals.
- Sediment deposition and river flow
As you can see in Figures 2a. and 2b. Versailles Pond has a dam attached to it, this dam was built in approximately 1865 (Weston Solutions, Inc. , REMOVAL PROGRAM PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT/ SITE INVESTIGATION FORMS 2016). Dams can be a good asset for domestic and industrial uses, however, they can actually change the conditions of a watershed for the worse as well. This is due to two reasons, river flow modification, and sediment deposition.
The change in river flow is due to the fact that rivers naturally have a change in flow which can indicate seasonal change. Many species including fish rely on these changes for actions such as reproduction or migration. However, with these dams, their migration time for example can increase due to the disruption (American River Writers, How dams damage rivers 2018). The change can also affect the temperature, since the stagnant water will heat up and it can also affect the natural gasses in a river, causing there to be too much nitrogen for fish to handle and too little oxygen.
Another problem that affects the watershed due to the construction of dams is the sediment deposition that follows. When a river is free-flowing, sediment is able to follow down the river and be better distributed along the shore and floor of the river, however, once a dam is built it causes sediment build up. This build-up can have heavy consequences on aquatic life such as burying eggs underneath the sediment, getting clogged in the gills of fish, and the fact that any harmful chemicals that could be polluting the waters will continue to build up instead of dispersing ( O’Keefe et al., Agents of Watershed Change 2022).
- High levels of mercury and PCBs
Although it isn’t a change you can really see with your eyes, the aquatic life in Versailles Pond has tested positive for large amounts of mercury and PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) levels (McCarthy & Gardner, Versailles Pond Feasibility Study Data Gaps Investigation Work Plan 2019). This caused the Department of Health to step in and decide that these fish are inedible, and especially high risk for those who are pregnant or nursing, however, no one should even attempt to eat them but instead opt for catch and release type fishing.
PCBs are chemicals that are man-made, nowadays they are banned from being used in the United States, however, products that contain PCB still linger and cause the risk of exposing hazardous chemicals to the environment. Although there isn’t much information on Versailles Pond, including history as to how the PCB and mercury levels became so high – since Sprague was originally a mill town you could most likely theorize it became this way after a leakage with one of the mills in Sprague since PCBs are usually associated industrial or commercial applications. The mills have since been closed and torn down but their effect on our environment and watershed still remain.
In all the time I have lived in my town there have been several motions by the town hall to clean up Versailles Pond, but there still hasn’t been any real actions taken to do so, unfortunately, the watershed is just forgotten or put to the side a lot of the time. Hopefully, in due time the conditions can be improved.
Reference List:
McCarthy, R., & Gardner, M. (2019, February). Versailles Pond Feasibility Study Data Gaps Investigation Work Plan. Chelmsford, MA; AECOM.
O’Keefe, T. C., Helfield, J. M., & Naiman, R. J. (2022, March 23). Agents of Watershed Change. EPA. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://cfpub.epa.gov/watertrain/moduleFrame.cfm?parent_object_id=681
American Rivers Writers. (2018, July 26). How dams damage rivers. American Rivers. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.americanrivers.org/threats-solutions/restoring-damaged-rivers/how-dams-damage-rivers/
Environmental Protection Agency. (2022, March 3). Learn about Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). EPA. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.epa.gov/pcbs/learn-about-polychlorinated-biphenyls-pcbs
Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team IV. (2016, September). REMOVAL PROGRAM PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT/ SITE INVESTIGATION FORMS. North Billerica, MA; Weston Solutions, Inc. .
Wreg, R. (2019, September 1). How does littering affect the environment? . Innovate Eco. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://innovate-eco.com/how-does-littering-affect-the-environment-and-a-few-solutions/
Deforestation, Impervious Surfaces, and Domestic Animals Can Change Your Watershed
By: Nicholas Perreault
Changes within watersheds can have big effects on the quality of water and the amount of species that live there. You can calculate and learn more about your own watershed by using USGS Streamstats (USGS, 2016). My personal watershed is 2.66 square miles with a mean elevation of 210 feet (USGS, 2016). The USGS Streamstats report also told me that there is 7.84% developed land with 1.84% impervious surface within my watershed (USGS, 2016). The mean annual precipitation is 48.686 inches, while the total length of streams is 3.76 miles, and it has 16.2% of wetlands (USGS, 2016). Within my own personal watershed there is a gravel quarry owned by Rawson Material Company. Another factor that could be contributing an impact to my watershed is that Sugar Brook is crossed by a major roadway. The combination of an unhealthy riparian zone because of clearing from the road and the pollution from potential roadway runoff could lead to decreased water quality. In this article, I will highlight some changes that have occurred in my own watershed, and focus on how those changes can affect the natural word.
Impervious Surfaces and Runoff
In my watershed, I have a lot of impervious cover. My watershed has a neighborhood with paved roads and a lot of driveways, as seen in Figure 1. Impervious surfaces can be detrimental to watersheds as they do not allow water to percolate through the soil in the way it should (NOAA, 2017). This can cause problems with groundwater as the lack of area for water to enter the ground can lower the underground water table (NOAA, 2017). Paving also eliminates the area for plants to grow. Plants play an important part in purifying water. Plants take up excessive nutrients and other contaminants in the water that cause problems with the water quality in our surface water. If these nutrients and contaminants are not filtered out, eutrophication can occur in our bodies of water. Eutrophication is when excessive nutrients get into our water bodies causing abnormal amounts of aquatic plant growth (O’Keefe and others, 2017). Eventually these plants die. When these plants decompose, the bacteria that decomposes uses up all the oxygen in the water (O’Keefe and others, 2017). This hypoxic condition causes fish to die off (O’Keefe and others, 2017). One other hazard of impervious surfaces is flash flooding. Flash flooding is when the water level of a river or normally dry area becomes flooded within minutes or hours.
Deforestation
Forests are important to a watershed for many reasons. One of the reasons is that they help hold soils in place. Without these forests, the soil could easily be eroded by water and wind. In my neighborhood there is an area where they are starting to clear for a new house. As they clear for this house they are removing the native plants that are holding the soil together and keeping it from eroding. Keeping the soil from eroding is important because this soil could run off and enter the nearby stream increasing the turbidity. Turbidity is the measure of how clear the water is. This turbidity could damage aquatic life in the stream as it can block sunlight. Another major deforestation is a quarry that is in my watershed. This quarry is almost completely stripped of vegetation. An area of land this large stripped of vegetation will definitely lead to increased turbidity in Sugar Brook, the local brook in my watershed. In Figure 2 I was able to capture the image of some trees that were cut down for these projects, but could not take any others due to property rights.
Domestic Animals
My watershed includes a neighborhood that has a lot of domestic animals, as seen in Figure 3. The animals are dogs, cats, chickens, and possibly some other livestock. This can add up to a lot of feces. When it rains, these feces can runoff into the storm drains, as seen in Figure 4, of the neighborhood and directly into the stream in my watershed. This can cause contamination of the water leading to human diseases like Escherichia coli from bacteria in the waste. This contamination can also move into people’s wells during flooding if their well submerges and especially if they have a faulty well. This can be detrimental to human health and lead to breakouts of infections that could even lead to death. Something else that can make this even worse is that people do not pick up after their dogs when they defecate. This makes the waste available to run off when a storm washes it away. If people did a better job picking up domestic animals may be less of a problem.
This report went over stressors in my watershed. These stressors include impervious cover, deforestation, and domestic animal waste. Impervious cover causes precipitation to be unable to pass through the soil into the earth. This can increase the risk of flash flooding as well as allowing contaminates to move faster to water bodies. Deforestation causes the soil to erode quicker and run off into water bodies. This runoff can increase the amount of turbidity in a waterbody. Lastly the toll of domestic animals on the watershed was discussed. The animal waste can runoff and leach into people’s wells causing health issues.
References:
O’Keefe, T.C., J.M. Helfield, and R.J. Naiman, 2017, Agents of Watershed Change, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency Watershed Academy Web, accessed March 18, 2022 at
https://cfpub.epa.gov/watertrain/moduleFrame.cfm?parent_object_id=681.
US Department of Commerce, N. O. and A. A. (2017, November 30). What is a watershed? What is a
Watershed? Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/watershed.html
USGS, 2016, StreamStats Report, StreamStats Application version 4.3.0, U.S. Geological Survey, accessed
March 18, 2022, at https://streamstats.usgs.gov/ss/
WatershedWatch 