Alabama Water Quality Information System

— Choose a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) —


	1.-		Do most river basins fall within specific political or territorial boundaries?


	2.-		Do watersheds affect drinking water quantity and quality?


	3.-		Do we divert water between different watersheds and river basins in the United States, and if so why?


	4.-		Does the percentage of impervious surface in a watershed affect nutrient loading from urban stormwater runoff?


	5.-		How are watershed protection and growth management related?


	6.-		How are watershed “addresses” determined?


	7.-		How can I be “watershed friendly”?


	8.-		How do I get assistance under the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program?


	9.-		How many major water storage dams are there in the United States and what is their condition?


	10.-		What are some results of water diversion from its natural location by humans?


	11.-		What are the advantages and disadvantages of diverting streamflow from one drainage basin to another?


	12.-		What are the important abiotic (non-biological) factors that affect the aquatic ecology of a lotic (flowing water) system and how do these factors affect biota in the system?


	13.-		What do we mean when we talk about watersheds, river basins, catchment basins, and drainage basins?


	14.-		What factors are affected by your watershed’s pH?


	15.-		What features make a watershed unique?


	16.-		What is a river basin?


	17.-		What is a watershed?


	18.-		What is remote sensing?


	19.-		What is the Emergency Watershed Protection Program?


	20.-		What is the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)?


	21.-		What is the relationship between watersheds and the hydrologic coding system used by a number of agencies in the United States?


	22.-		What is watershed based zoning?


	23.-		What percentage of the fresh water resources in the U.S. originate from forested watersheds?


	24.-		What watershed do I live in?


	25.-		Which type of drainage basin has the greatest effect on surface runoff and sediment load?


	26.-		Why is a watershed important?


	27.-		Why is managing water resources on a watershed basis the best approach?


	28.-		Why is the Chicago diversion from Lake Michigan of interest to Canada?


	29.-		Will the U.S. implement more detailed watershed-based programs in the future to prevent further degradation of our water sources?

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This website was developed by the ACES Water Quality Team, under the leadership of Dr. James E. Hairston. It is funded, in part, by USDA-CSREES water quality grant support under Section 406 of the Agricultural Research, Extension and Education Reform Act of 1998.