Knoxville water pollution remains a concern for professionals, environmental groups.
The sunlight bounces off the flowing water of the Tennessee River and connecting streams.
It might be a picturesque scene for residents, but what lays in the water is a concern for professionals and environmental groups in the Knoxville area.
“The Tennessee River has routinely listed as one of the top 20 most populated rivers in the U.S.,” according to Dr. Mike McKinney, a professor of Environmental Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Then, increasingly agricultural, we have a lot of runoff from tomato farms and crops,” McKinney said.
“We have funded a $38,000 research lab on second creek to monitor the water quality and water pollution…that will go over for three to four year period,” according to Preston Jacobsen, a sustainability manager at UTK’s Office of Sustainability.
Creeks are a lot worse than the rivers.
Water pollution has also affected Knoxville’s drinking water.
Knoxville’s drinking water comes from the Tennessee River and although the water is filtrated, some chemicals are still present in the water, according to McKinney.
Knoxville residents can help reduce Knoxville’s water pollution by getting involved in cleanup efforts and promoting environmental awareness, according to Jacobsen.

BUSIA, Kenya, April 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Armed with a hoe and Wellington boots, George Wandera planted bamboo seedlings in neatly dug holes along the banks of a stream on his farm that feeds a nearby lake in western Kenya.
"I’ve never tried this on my farm before but it’s the first step in protecting the stream," he said.
"Wetlands such as lakes and floodplains act as natural safeguards against disasters, by absorbing excess rainfall during floods, with the stored water then available in times of drought," said Julie Mulonga, programme manager at Wetlands International Kenya, a conservation charity in Busia.
During the current drought, farmers and herders have been drawing water from the wetlands, and streams feeding them have run dry.
Local communities have also been draining them to grow crops, Mulonga said.
Wandera remembers when large parts of the Sio-Siteko wetland, near the border with Uganda, were drained to make way for farmland.
"We never thought our activities were harmful until we saw the consequences – that is, more floods during the rainy season and less water during the dry season, leading to a decline in vegetation and animal species," he said.
Charities like Wetlands International Kenya, with support from the government, are working with communities in Busia to protect their wetlands, while helping them develop alternatives to farming like beekeeping and eco-tourism.
Wandera said some farmers are building greenhouses to cultivate vegetables like yams.
"But they ensure the farmers can grow vegetables using less water and land, thus preventing their encroachment on wetlands," he added.

By Wayne Hooper / sports@seacoastonline.com Wildlife biologists in Maine say it could take up to four years for the state’s wild brook trout population to fully recover from last year’s drought.
Not with guns, but with fishing rods.
Currently there are certified 4-H Shooting Sports instructors in every county in Maine, and that list is growing.
Instructors must be at least 21 years of age.
nnn Every bow hunter in the world should be aware of Fred Bear.
n Don’t look for deer, look for movement and remember it’s what they’re looking for, too.
n The best camouflage pattern is called, “Sit down and be quiet!” Your grandpa hunted deer in a red plaid coat; think about that for a second.
n Hunt where the deer actually are, not where you’d imagine them to be.
n Next year’s hunt begins the minute this season’s hunt ends.
Wayne Hooper is a member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association and a lifelong Seacoast resident.

As our quiet time is quickly drawing to a close, this is an opportune time to take another look at your farming operation and determine if there are areas that could benefit from the establishment of one or more conservation practices. For instance, do you have a ditch or stream running through your farm that needs a filter strip? Is a particular field prone to wind erosion and stands to benefit from a windbreak? How about that one area that’s hard to farm because it’s always wet? Have you considered how FSA’s Lake Erie Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (Lake Erie CREP) might benefit your farming operation and help to protect the environment at the same time? Lake Erie CREP began with the main objective to improve water quality in all of our rivers, streams and tributaries within the Lake Erie watershed. These conservation practices will target environmentally sensitive areas to reduce sediments and nutrients, prevent water pollution and minimize the risk of flooding and improve the habitat for multiple wildlife species. The Lake Erie Conservation Enhancement Program (CREP) like all of our conservation programs is voluntary. It is entirely up to the landowner or the farm operator to enroll acres in a particular program. Through our federal partnerships it is quite possible that we can have a conservation plan in place before this spring’s planting. Play Video Play Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Remaining Time -0:00 This is a modal window. Foreground — White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan — Opaque Semi-Opaque Background — White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan — Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window — White Black…

Help keep water clean: Pick up pet waste, use less pesticide, fertilizer.
How do we make sure it stays healthy and safe?
It also protects our plentiful Northwest wildlife, including the salmon and the shellfish we eat.
When we monitor our waters, we look for bacteria, nutrients and other qualities important to health.
Human and animal waste, human activities, as well as pesticides and fertilizers can all affect water quality.
Limit the use of pesticides and fertilizers: Pesticides and fertilizers are easily washed off your lawn into lakes and streams.
For helpful advice visit the Thurston County Public Health Common Sense Gardening page, or keep an eye on the Thurston County WSU Extension’s Master Gardener program for events and classes: http://extension.wsu.edu/thurston/gardening or visit the new Grow Smart Grow Safe website at growsmartgrowsafe.org Use smart car washing practices: When cars are washed in the driveway or on the street, harmful soap and detergents drains into our waterways.
Keep your septic system in working order: Many houses depend on septic systems to treat and dispose of their wastewater, but failing systems can pollute our waterways.
You can see helpful videos at doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/WastewaterManagement/SepticSystem There are many ways to keep water healthy for your family to drink and safe to play around.
Water quality reports are available through Thurston County’s website.

While changing precipitation patterns can have a significant impact on stream flows in the Sierra Nevada mountains, a new study by UC Santa Barbara researchers indicates that shifts in vegetation type resulting from warming and other factors may have an equal or greater effect.
Their findings appear in the journal PLOS One.
"We found that vegetation change may have a greater impact on the amount of stream flow in the Sierra than the direct effects of climate warming," said lead author Ryan Bart, a postdoctoral researcher at UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.
Exacerbated by climate and drought, fires such as the 2013 Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park can destroy entire stands of forest, which may not return.
Because the future composition of shrub lands and the distribution of shrub species in the Sierra Nevada is unknown, the researchers examined stream flows under multiple possible scenarios of vegetation-type conversion in two Sierra Nevada watersheds.
While some forest-to-shrub land conversion scenarios resulted in higher stream flow, depending on factors such as the size and area covered by shrub leaves relative to tree leaves, Bart noted that a shrub-dominated landscape would not necessarily result in more water in stream.
"Shrubs are adept at pulling water out of the soil, so that in some cases, a decent-sized shrub may use just as much water as a much taller tree.
It is only when shrubs are much smaller than trees that we see less water used by vegetation and thus more stream flow."
"The results underscore the importance of accounting for changes in vegetation communities to accurately characterize future stream flow for the Sierra Nevada."
Effect of Tree-to-Shrub Type Conversion in Lower Montane Forests of the Sierra Nevada (USA) on Streamflow.

WV Gov.
Justice signs water pollution bill.
Gov.
Jim Justice signed a controversial bill Tuesday that could allow for increased pollution discharges into the state’s rivers and streams.
The legislation (House Bill 2506) changes the way the state Department of Environmental Protection sets pollution discharge limits.
Under the bill, the department will now use an average stream flow, or “harmonic mean” when setting pollution discharge limits, instead of the low-flow stream figure they have been using.
The bill faced stiff opposition along the way from Democrats in the House and Senate — who attempted to amend the bill several times to narrow its scope — and from some members of the public.
Along with changing measurement standards, the bill also allows mixing zones (points where discharges enter the water and begin the dilution process) to overlap, pending approval from the DEP with the Environmental Protection Agency’s review.
The bill passed through the House of Delegates March 1 on a 63-37 vote and through the Senate on a 20-13 vote.
Reach Jake Zuckerman at jake.zuckerman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4814 or @jake_zuckerman on Twitter.

DEC denies permit for controversial National Fuel pipeline.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation has rejected National Fuel’s plans for a 97-mile pipeline to carry natural gas from northwestern Pennsylvania to Elma.
The DEC determined there was too big a threat to water quality and wildlife to grant National Fuel the water quality certificate required to construct the Northern Access Pipeline.
"After an in-depth review of the proposed Northern Access Pipeline project and following three public hearings and the consideration of over 5,700 comments, DEC has denied the permit due to the project’s failure to avoid adverse impacts to wetlands, streams and fish and other wildlife habitat," the DEC announced.
"We are confident that this decision supports our state’s strict water quality standards that all New Yorkers depend on," the DEC statement added.
Environmental groups and residents raised concern about threats the pipeline posed to water quality, including its planned crossing of Cattaraugus Creek, which is the sole source drinking water aquifer for residents in a 325-square-mile area.
DEC officials determined National Fuel’s plans did not "avoid or adequately mitigate" impacts that could harm water quality and associated resources.
Last April, the DEC denied a water quality permit to the Constitution Pipeline.
Another Pendleton resident and a leader of the action team, Paula Hargreaves, said the DEC’s findings confirmed what her organization had been saying all along.
Hargreaves called the DEC’s findings a victory in a single "battle" and said the organization intends to remain vigilant in anticipation of the gas company resubmitting their plans.

Despite Efforts, Clean Water Is Scarce In India’s Industrial Gujarat State.
In late February, the country’s Supreme Court mandated that all polluting industries must ensure that waste water discharges meet quality standards by installing effective primary effluent treatment facilities by March 31 2017.
River and lake pollution is a major problem across much of India, and regulatory inertia toward industrial waste water has exacerbated the situation.
In Gujarat, even regions with otherwise plentiful surface water sources are affected as creeks and rivers turn into black cesspools thanks to increasing municipal waste and insufficient sewage treatment plants.
The Gujarat Pollution Control Board forced non-compliant industrial units to implement a time-bound action plan, including a series of strategies to mitigate water and air pollution within the industrial clusters.
These steps are beginning to show some results.
According to the agency’s 2014-15 annual report, industrial use of pollution-abatement technologies and upgrades in common effluent treatment plants have mitigated chemical oxygen demand and ammoniac nitrogen in water sources, both measures of industrial pollution.
And neither state nor national environmental controls have improved the quality of water in Gujarat’s rivers, lakes, creeks and coastal areas outside the specified industrial clusters.
And given the many new Gujarat government incentives aimed at improving industrial environmental governance, the investment required to upgrade environmental protections no longer looks quite so unprofitable.
Such innovation is not only now financially feasible, it could also help industries to insulate themselves against future water scarcity in the state.

From drought to deluge: Incoming rain may cause flooding.
With the Housatonic and other Berkshire rivers and streams running fast and approaching bankfull, the National Weather Service predicts that torrential downpours on Thursday and Friday could spur minor to moderate flooding in some areas.
The government agency’s posted flood watch for the entire region is up until Saturday morning.
The approaching storm is expected to dump up to two inches of rain on ground already saturated from snow melt and Tuesday’s rainfall, which totaled just over an inch at Pittsfield Municipal Airport.
According to the National Weather Service, the rainfall combined with additional runoff from the recent snow melt will cause many rivers in the region to reach or exceed flood stage.
An intensifying storm over the Ohio Valley late Wednesday was heading toward upstate New York and western New England.
Thunderstorms are possible, especially south of the Mass Pike.
Rainfall should taper off late Friday, with occasional showers after sunset.
The payoff early next week will be a stretch of real spring weather, with sunny skies and temperatures well above normal, likely into the 60s by Monday and even the 70s on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the moderate to severe drought that afflicted Berkshire County and the rest of Massachusetts since last spring has eased quickly, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.