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Nearly
650 bodies of water in Washinton State fail to meet federal standards
defining good water quality. Some are polluted from point sources,
others from non-point sources. The latter includes industries, municipalities,
households, agriculture, and logging. To help restore good water quality,
the Washington State Department of Ecology develops Total Maximum
Daily Loads (TMDLs) for each body of water. |
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The
EPA soon will require each state to have an EPA-approved Pesticide
Management Plan for several pesticides. In order to prepare its plans,
the Washington State Department of Agriculture is using a pesticide
root-zone model of the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project area to assess
the relative risk of pesticide contamination of groundwater. This
process will bring together information on groundwater issures that
also will have other applications. |
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The
twenty-first century will bring an increased need for the production
of food and fiber, but a decrease in the productivity of world fisheries
and a loss of productive land due to erosion and soil salinization.
The Inland Pacific Northwest is well situated for expanding its productive
areas to meet this need, but doing so will depend on improved management
of complex water-related issues. |
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Two
methods of subsoiling were tested to determine whether they reduced
water erosion and soil loss when there is rain or snowmelt on frozen
soils. The damage to crops, water infiltration, erosion, and yields
for each were compared. The results showed that subsoiling, which
is routinely used during fallow winters, and also be beneficial during
crop winters in a wheat-fallow rotation. |
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Making science-based decisions
about complex resource management issues may mean that scientists
need to become comfortable with answers at a lower level of certainty
that they would like. Rarely will scientific analysis of complicated
environmental systems yield the desired 95 to 99 percent certainty,
but the analysis still should be done and reported along with the
estimated uncertainty level. |
Washington
Water Research Center 
Director, Dr. Claudio O. Stöckle; Information Manager, Dr. Oumarou
Badini; Administrative Assistant, Diane L. Weber
Phone: 509-335-5531
Fax: 509-335-1590
E-mail: watercenter@wsu.edu
Web: www.swwrc.wsu.edu |
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