From the Editors

WE&T Prelude

It Takes a Watershed

When friends and family ask me about water quality, I find myself in a bind: How do I do justice to a complex topic while keeping them engaged in the conversation? Since I usually don’t have a diagram of a wastewater treatment plant handy, I often turn to a subject already familiar to them: the local watershed.

Everyone lives in a watershed, and anyone can make a difference in one. Here in the Washington, D.C., region, storm sewers are stenciled with the message, “Don’t Dump — Chesapeake Bay Drainage.” Campaigns such as these raise awareness about water quality issues and remind citizens that watersheds are our shared responsibility.

For water quality professionals, the watershed approach requires taking a holistic view, recognizing all inhibitors to water quality, and working collaboratively on restoration efforts. This is a tall order, but we continue to see examples of how it can be done. For instance, just last month the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency announced they will work cooperatively to reduce nutrients in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Since farmlands account for approximately one-fourth of this watershed, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, controlling agricultural runoff will be an integral part of restoring the bay.

In this issue we highlight various viewpoints on watershed management: goals that have been set, partnerships that make sense, and what more needs to be done to sustain water quality for the long term.

— Melissa Jackson, editor
mjackson@wef.org

Operations Forum Editor's Note

Liquid Life

In April, astronomers announced that they have found a planet outside of our solar system that could sustain life. The key to that finding is that the planet might have liquid water on its surface. 

Here on Earth, we have lots of water, about 326 million mi3 (one cubic mile contains one trillion gallons of water), according to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. But only 3% is fresh water, and about 2% is trapped in polar ice caps and glaciers. So the approximately 6.6 billion people on the planet survive using the remaining 1%.

That relative scarcity is what makes effective water and wastewater treatment so very important. As the population grows, it becomes ever more important to make each drop count. Technologies such as biological and chemical nutrient removal and membrane filtration enable us to clean our wastewater more completely to protect our planet, our environment, and us.

On other planets, the rule is “without water life cannot exist.” Add 6.6 billion people to the equation and the rule changes to “without enough clean, drinkable water, life as we know it cannot exist.”

— Steve Spicer, editor
sspicer@wef.org