In the article Restoring Rivers Margaret Palmer and J. Allen discuss the importance of water ways and how to preserve them. Water ways were getting cleaner after 1973 until 1998 when it again became worse. water quality and extreme extraction are both problems concerning the waterways. Disasters such as the creation of a dead zone in the Chesapeake bay have occurred because of the degradation of rivers and streams. These disasters could have been prevented by ecological restoration which is the repairing water ways that can no longer perform essential ecological and social functions. This includes actions such as mitigating floods, providing drinking water and removing excess nutrients from the water. They say that the U.S. needs regulations and federal policies to improve the effectiveness of restoration. Originally waste was dumped in waterways to solve pollution. they also cut down riparian vegetation and filled in wetlands. water quality got worse with increasing industrialization and the paving of cities. in 1960 two-thirds were polluted. pavement over land has changed the way water runoff behaves which in turn changes the behavior of rivers leading to flooding. Attempts have been made by starting projects all over the country such as the planting riparian buffers. Stricter standards on storm runoff has been implemented as well. despite an ever increasing amount of restoration projects the coastal banks continue to show degradation. The government needs to increase its standards of restoration projects. A lot is known about how to effectively restore waterways but this information has not been used in many projects. they the state that federal agencies must adopt standards for successful river restoration. A system to track the projects must be created. National studies must be taken to evaluate the effectiveness of projects. Funding must be used more efficiently and more funding is needed. They conclude by saying that waterways can be restored with proper government application of policies and funding.Monday, March 22, 2010
Selection 24 Summary
In the article Restoring Rivers Margaret Palmer and J. Allen discuss the importance of water ways and how to preserve them. Water ways were getting cleaner after 1973 until 1998 when it again became worse. water quality and extreme extraction are both problems concerning the waterways. Disasters such as the creation of a dead zone in the Chesapeake bay have occurred because of the degradation of rivers and streams. These disasters could have been prevented by ecological restoration which is the repairing water ways that can no longer perform essential ecological and social functions. This includes actions such as mitigating floods, providing drinking water and removing excess nutrients from the water. They say that the U.S. needs regulations and federal policies to improve the effectiveness of restoration. Originally waste was dumped in waterways to solve pollution. they also cut down riparian vegetation and filled in wetlands. water quality got worse with increasing industrialization and the paving of cities. in 1960 two-thirds were polluted. pavement over land has changed the way water runoff behaves which in turn changes the behavior of rivers leading to flooding. Attempts have been made by starting projects all over the country such as the planting riparian buffers. Stricter standards on storm runoff has been implemented as well. despite an ever increasing amount of restoration projects the coastal banks continue to show degradation. The government needs to increase its standards of restoration projects. A lot is known about how to effectively restore waterways but this information has not been used in many projects. they the state that federal agencies must adopt standards for successful river restoration. A system to track the projects must be created. National studies must be taken to evaluate the effectiveness of projects. Funding must be used more efficiently and more funding is needed. They conclude by saying that waterways can be restored with proper government application of policies and funding.
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