Auburn, Oct. 10---Virtually every major topic dealing with water pollution prevention and mitigation will be discussed at the eighth consecutive Extension Water Quality Conference, scheduled for October 28 to 31 at Gulf Shores State Park Resort in Gulf Shores, Al.

Program topics will deal with a wide array of topics, including waste management, drinking water and human health, watershed management and environmental restoration.

"Water quality is a big issue nationwide," says Dr. Jim Hairston, an Auburn University professor of agronomy and soils and Extension water quality scientist, who is helping coordinate the conference. "A greater and greater emphasis is being placed on water quality, both within the context of pollution prevention and cleanup."

Conference speakers will address several emerging issues in water quality that were scarcely considered only a few decades ago. One primary concern is nutrient enrichment of lakes and streams, which occurs when nutrient-enriched storm water is washed into surface water from indeterminate sources such as cropland, livestock operations, fertilized and commercial and home landscapes, and direct discharges from wastewater treatment plants.

Experts fear excessive levels of these nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorous accelerate the growth of algae and other aquatic plants, resulting in oxygen depletion and ultimately fish kills.

Nutrient enrichment is not only confined to lakes and streams. Seas and oceans throughout the world also are suffering – a fact reflected by recurring problems of hypoxia (dead zones) in the Gulf of Mexico and red tide in Mobile Bay and other freshwater and saltwater interfaces.

Equally disturbing is the fact some of these aquatic plants ingesting these nutrients release toxic chemicals that may ultimately end up in drinking water.

"Surface water throughout the developed world is being choked to death by the flush of plant growth that accompanies nutrient enrichment," Hairston says.

"Unfortunately, most of the nation’s wastewater treatment plants are not equipped to deal with these problems," Hairston says. "And while an ideal solution would be upgrading these facilities to remove these nutrients, costs could run as high as $30 million in some cases, straining the budgets of even the largest most affluent facilities."

A related problem concerns the presence of antibiotic residues, which ultimately find their way into the drinking water supply after being washed down toilets into wastewater.

"The jury is still out on whether this is causing problems such as enhanced bacterial resistance to certain antibiotics," Hairston says. "Nevertheless, it is a concern and is likely to be of even greater concern in the future if we learn these residues are causing physical side effects."

The Extension Water Quality Conference is a biennial meeting that serves as a forum by which Extension water quality specialists and other experts in related fields can discuss and exchange ideas relating to water quality education and public policy.

"It’s one of the most effective ways we know to strengthen Extension’s capacity to develop and deliver successful water-quality programs and to enhance our working relationships with other agencies," Hairston says.

Approximately 200 water quality experts and professionals from 13 states, including virtually all of the Southern states and New Mexico, will be represented at the conference.

As the primary outreach arm for the nation’s land-grant universities, the Cooperative Extension System has played a major role in water quality educational efforts.