Cross Media Inputs to Eastern US Watersheds and Their Significance to Estuarine Water Quality

Abstract

Extensive research on Chesapeake Bay estuary, its drainage basin, and its airshed have now demonstrated that atmospheric deposition and diffuse land discharges are the largest sources for many parameters affecting estuarine water quality. For example, phosphorus and sediments are transported to the Bay largely in overland storm flows, nitrate largely in atmospheric deposition and in ground water, many pesticides and other toxic materials in surface waters and atmospheric deposition, and silicate primarily in ground water. Concerns over point sources such as sewage treatment outfalls and industrial outfalls have led to greatly improved treatment methods, alleviating the relative magnitude of these sources. The realization of the magnitude and importance of diffuse sources has led to research on improved land use practices, including better patterns of land use in the Chesapeake Bay landscape. One example is the use of and improved management of forested riparian buffer zones in the coastal plain part of the drainage basin.