Effect of urbanization on surface water chemistry in south-central Texas

Abstract

The use of state factors can adequately describe the biogeochemistry and geochemistry of relatively undisturbed surface waters. Watersheds with increasing proportions of urban and suburban land use, particularly in sub-tropical, semi-arid and arid urban areas, that utilize irrigation for turfgrass and landscaping may have a low flow urban signature that relates to the source water used by municipal water suppliers. We examined thirteen watersheds; four with waste water treatment plants (24-67% urbanization), four rural (< 30% urbanization) and five urban (> 30% urbanization) in a humid sub-tropical oak savannah in south-central Texas. Three of our urban and one of our rural watersheds displayed the signature of municipal tap water. Three out of four watersheds with waste water treatment plants displayed the signature of treated sewage effluent. We suggest as a result of this study that the chemistry of municipal tap water particularly that with high sodium and bicarbonate, used in urban watersheds for irrigating turfgrass and landscapes may have detrimental effects on base flow stream water quality after it has interacted with watershed soils.

Influences of urban wastewaters on the stream water quality: a case study from Gumushane Province, Turkey

“…Because most of these elements vary temporally as well as spatially, gaining an accurate understanding of water quality is dependent of careful study planning, particularly placement of sampling locations and timing of collection events (Markantonatos et al 1995;Brezonic et al 1999). The majority of reported studies have been designed around specific questions such as the effects of urbanization on spring, stream, or ground-water quality, where sampling design is carefully developed to assess those features (Al-Kharabsheh 1999;Graniel et al 1999;Vidal and Melgar 2000;Jeong 2001;AlKharabsheh and Ta'any 2003;Khazaei et al 2004;Brilly et al 2006;Rose 2007;Peters 2009;Ma et al 2009;Aitkenhead-Peterson et al 2011). Point source pollution has traditionally been the target of most water-quality studies, not only because such investigations are usually easier to design and complete, but because point source contaminants have been the predominant issue in many parts of the world (Daniel et al 2002;Keraita et al 2003;Gobeil et al 2005;Schoonover et al 2005;Lewis et al 2007;Girija et al 2007;Hur et al 2007;Shiddamallayya and Pratima 2008;Suthar et al 2010;Maani-Messai et al 2010), as well as self-purification of the streams (Heidenwag et al 2001;Vagnetti et al 2003;Cukrov et al 2008;Wei et al 2009;Vaikasas and Dumbrauskas 2010).…”

Multiple land use activities drive riverine salinization in a large, semi‐arid river basin in western Canada

“…In addition to the climate specific drivers of salinization described above, municipal and/or industrial wastewater effluents (Cortecci et al 2002;Parr and Mason 2003;Aitkenhead-Peterson et al 2010;M€ uller and G€ achter 2011), oil and gas activities (Bern et al 2015), and mining (B€ athe and Coring 2011;Zipper et al 2016) are additional sources of salinity to rivers. Finally, changes in precipitation and/or evapotranspiration as a result of climate change may further accelerate riverine salinization (Cañedo-Arg€ uelles et al 2013).…”

Growth and Habitat Use of Guadalupe Bass in the South Llano River, Texas

“…Aquatic systems on the Edwards Plateau, such as the South Llano River, exhibit high levels of biodiversity and endemism (Conner and Suttkus 1986;Abell et al 2000;Hubbs et al 2008), but also face numerous threats that are ultimately related to the rapidly increasing human population of central Texas (Bowles and Arsuffi 1993). The changes in land use and increased demand for water associated with this rapidly increasing urban population is expected to result in altered water quality and quantity for the aquatic systems of central Texas (Bowles and Arsuffi 1993;O'Driscoll et al 2010;Aitkenhead-Peterson et al 2011).…”