Preface

This is a book about water quality. Like all books concerning water quality, it is not comprehensive and does not cover all possible water quality topics. *Water Quality – Science, Assessments and Policy* is comprised of nine chapters examining scientific issues; national, regional and local assessment practices and results; and national policy issues. It is organized into three sections dealing with water quality parameters, water quality treatments, and water quality assessments. The two chapters on science issues examine the basic indicators of water quality and a unique sociological indicator of water quality. The three chapters covering water quality treatment evaluate natural water treatment for soil-transmitted helminths and ecological risk assessment using a sedimentary approach. Finally, the four chapters dealing with water quality assessment examine the US lakes, streams, estuaries and wetlands.

The section on water quality indicators includes two chapters. The first, "Water Quality Parameters," summarizes the water quality parameters in an ecological theme not only for humans but also for other living things. This chapter maintains that water can be classified into four types according to its quality. Those water quality types are discussed and an extensive review of the important common physical, chemicals and biological indicators is provided. The indicators are reviewed in terms of definition, sources, impacts, effects and measuring methods. The final chapter in this section, "Sense of Place and Water Quality: Applying Sense of Place Metrics to Better Understand Community Impacts of Changes in Water Quality," examines a sociological indicator of water quality – sense of place. This chapter focuses on understanding people's values for coastal and freshwater systems. This focus is critical for protecting water resources and informing management decisions. Sense of place is a social indicator that captures the relative value that different people hold for specific places and offers promise as a tool for measuring an important aspect of the social value of water quality. This chapter proposes a quantitative sense-of-place scale and additional qualitative questions that can be used in conjunction with biophysical water quality data and water quality perceptions data to better understand how people's values change with improvements or degradations in water quality.

The section on water quality treatments includes three chapters. The first chapter, "Natural Wastewater Treatment Systems for Prevention and Control of Soil-Transmitted Helminths," examines exposures to wastewater and their association to greater prevalence of soil-transmitted helminths. Despite preventive chemotherapy, wastewaters in many countries still contain high concentrations of soil-transmitted helminth eggs that put exposed populations at risk of infection. This chapter explains the role of natural wastewater treatment systems as sustainable sanitation facilities in removing STH from wastewater and therefore preventing disease transmission. The second chapter, "Association of Polyethylene Glycol Solubility with Emerging Membrane Technologies, Wastewater Treatment and Desalination," examines membrane technologies for the treatment of wastewater. In addition, this chapter evaluates the use of membrane technology for desalination. The final chapter in this section, "Water Quality Ecological Risk Assessment with Sedimentological Approach," looks at the creation of the potential ecological risk

**II**

**Chapter 7 113**

**Chapter 8 131**

**Chapter 9 153**

*by John A. Kiddon, Hugh Sullivan, Walter G. Nelson, Marguerite C. Pelletier,* 

Wetland Assessment: Beyond the Traditional Water Quality Perspective

Rivers and Streams: Upgrading Monitoring of the Nation's Freshwater

Lessons Learned from 30 Years of Assessing U.S. Coastal Water

*by Mary E. Kentula, Amanda M. Nahlik, Steven G. Paulsen* 

Resources - Meeting the Spirit of the Clean Water Act *by Steven G. Paulsen, David V. Peck, Philip R. Kaufmann* 

*Linda Harwell, Mari Nord and Steve Paulsen*

*and Alan T. Herlihy*

*and Teresa K. Magee*

index (ERI) and its use as a diagnostic tool for water system assessment. The index is based on sedimentology and combined with environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology. The chapter introduces the index approach and uses it to assess the Liaohe River, China.

The section on water quality assessments includes four chapters. The 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA) established goals and regulations regarding water quality in US water resources, including coastal waters. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was charged with implementing the CWA's goals and with helping states and tribes meet their mandate to periodically monitor and assess water quality in their jurisdictions. In response, the EPA initiated the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) to research effective methods of assessing water quality in lakes, rivers and streams, and estuaries at state and national scales. Subsequently, the EMAP assessments evolved into the National Resource Surveys. All the chapters in this section relate to the US National Aquatic Resources Surveys and assess lakes, rivers and streams, coastal resources (estuaries and the Great Lakes), and wetlands. The lakes' assessments chapter, "Jewels across the Landscape: Monitoring and Assessing the Quality of Lakes and Reservoirs in the United States," describes efforts by a unique partnership between the United States and the EPA to monitor and assess lake ecosystems. The chapter on rivers and streams, "Rivers and Streams - Upgrading Monitoring of the Nation's Freshwater: Meeting the Spirit of the Clean Water Act," describes the partnership between EPA, the United States and tribes to remedy the information gap for rivers and streams. Filling this gap requires improved monitoring designs to reflect conditions across all waters as well as the expansion of indicators to move beyond water chemistry to include all three elements of the CWA: chemical, physical and biological integrity. The chapter on coastal resources, "Lessons Learned from 30 Years of Assessing U.S. Coastal Water," recounts the history of assessments in coastal waters, emphasizing the current approach while highlighting examples of lessons learned over the thirty-year development period leading to the National Coastal Condition Assessment. The final chapter is this section, "Wetland Assessment: Beyond the Traditional Water Quality Perspective," assesses the wetlands of the United States. The wetland survey introduces the concept of aquatic resource quality, the condition of an ecosystem based on the collective assessment of physical, chemical, and biological indicators, as the goal of monitoring and assessment of aquatic systems. The survey reports on wetland condition using a biotic indicator (vegetation multimetric index) and the relative extent and relative risk of stressors using ten physical, chemical and biological indicators. These surveys go beyond single water quality (chemistry) issues and include assessments targeting the goal of the CWA, namely, restoring, maintaining and protecting the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation's aquatic resources.

*Water Quality – Science, Assessments and Policy* provides basic understanding of water quality issues and practical examples of their solution.

> **Kevin Summers** United States Environmental Protection Agency, Gulf Ecosystem Measurement and Modeling Division, Florida, USA

> > **1**

Section 1

Water Quality Parameters

Section 1
