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[Tour
of Groundwater | Water
Use | Water
Balance | Groundwater
Model | Back to main]
What affects streamflow and
water quality?
Fish need clean, flowing water in the streams. To protect
fish habitat we need to understand the factors that affect
water quality and quantity. Naturally, some of these things
we can control and some we cannot. From among the things we
can influence, we'll focus here on water use is the Assabet
River watershed and provide links to sources of more general
information.
- Precipitation - the largest single
factor in streamflow is precipitation. It affects streamflow
immediately, with stormwater runoff, and in the longer term,
by refilling ("recharging") the watershed's aquifers.
Although we certainly can't change rainfall, we be aware
of the current conditions and be more conscious of water
conservation during times of drought. Check out the Mass
Department of Environmental Management's Rainfall program.
- Groundwater / surface water interactions.
Most people are familiar with the cycle of surface water
- the water we can see in the rivers, lakes, oceans, rain,
and snow. But what goes on where we can't see it - the groundwater
flow - completes the cycle. Take a tour of the
groundwater cycle.
- Land use changes - development in the
watershed brings with it a cascade of changes to the natural
water cycle. Water runs rapidly off paved and other impermeable
surfaces doesn't have a chance to percolate through the
ground to refill the aquifers that we depend on for water
supply and baseflow to streams. This, in turn, leads to
changes in streamflow and water quality. To find out more
take a look at the Non-point
Education for Municipal Officials project - you don't
need to be a municipal official to appreciate the wonderful
fact sheets under "Publications"
- Water Use and Water Balances - the
balance between water withdrawn from the aquifers of a watershed
and the water returned to that watershed (as opposed to
discharged as wastewater to the mainstem river or lost to
evaporation) affects both streamflow and water quality.
Read about water use,
water balance, or
computer modeling of
groundwater flows.
- Flow alterations - such as those causes
by dams (both man-made and the "natural" ones
engineered by the beaver population in the watershed). Read
about dam evaluation and removal work being done by River
Restore, a program of the Division of Fisheries, Wildlife
and Environmental Law Enforcement
- Point-source pollution - discharges
of wastewater from municipal and industrial sources directly
affects water quality. Read more about the point-source
pollution problems on the mainstem Assabet
River.
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