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Safety
Find good clean water info on-line
T For example, the Illinois Watershed Management Clearinghouse at http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/watershed/ is a web site designed to help individuals and groups address local water quality issues. Recently, several interactive maps were added. Users can select from many different types of maps including water resources, soils, roads, land cover, and aerial photography.
This site includes information on managing and collecting watershed data, watershed management models, and summaries of ongoing watershed efforts. Also included are training and educational links and natural resource materials for youth education. Online presentations of "50 Ways Farmers Can Protect Their Groundwater" and "60 Ways Farmers Can Protect Surface Water" are available. Another useful website is called "Surf Your Watershed" at www.epa.gov/surf/. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency manages it and it provides detailed water quality information for local areas and links to other sources of data. Users can search for local information by watershed, hydrologic unit, stream name, town, or zip code. Watershed characteristics, maps, environmental profiles, water and land use data are available. The National Agricultural Library, Water Quality Information Center, provides electronic access to information about water and agriculture at www.nal.usda.gov/wqic/. Using this database, you can locate more than five hundred electronic publications that are freely available on the Internet. Similarly, North Carolina State University Extension Water Quality Program maintains an extensive listing of web sites related to non-point source pollution and water quality issues. Their web address is: www5.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/wqg/issues/resources.html. Online information is also available for specific topics such as abandoned wells. The abandoned well website can be found at http://dnr.state.il.us/orep/inrin/eq/well/trial.htm. Abandoned wells pose a threat to water quality and a significant safety concern. They may allow contaminants to bypass the natural filtering process that takes place in the soil. This site includes technical information such as the Illinois Water Well Construction Code and Requirements for Sealing Abandoned Wells. It also includes a list of resources and who to contact for more information. Finally, University of Illinois Extension maintains a web site that provides research-based information and programs on a wide range of issues at www.extension.uiuc.edu/. The topics are listed by area and the website includes a list of all Extension offices and links to other resources. Other water quality Internet resources • AWRA - American Water Resources Association: http://www.uwin.siu.edu/~awra/ • National Drinking Water Clearinghouse: http://www.ndwc.wvu.edu/ • SWCS - Soil & Water Conservation Society: http://www.swcs.org/ • USDA: http://www.usda.gov/ • USDA-NRCS Water and Climate Center: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ • Hardship Grants Program for Rural Communities on the Web: http://www.epa.gov/OWM/wm042002.htm • USGS National Water Conditions: http://water.usgs.gov/nwc/ • USGS Water Resources Information: http://h2o.usgs.gov/ • Water On Line: http://www.wateronline.com • Water Quality Association: http://www.wqa.org • Water Wiser - The Water Efficiency Clearinghouse: http://www.waterwiser.org
George Czapar is an extension educator and integrated pest management specialist at the Springfield Extension Center, University of Illinois, P.O. Box 8199, Springfield, IL 62791-8199, (217) 782-6515, e-mail: g-zapar@uiuc.edu. 14 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING • FEBRUARY 2001 |
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