Colorado Water Oct 2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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tives from water districts, the county commissioner and assessor, conservationists, retailers, economic developers, a property rights foundation, realtors, NECALG, and farmers. We described our study and how it could help them plan for the economic changes predicted to occur in this and other rural communities. They, in turn, told us what informa- tion they were seeking from us. It was very moti- vating to see that my research indeed matters and will be used by real people for real issues. My advisor, Dr. James Pritchett, and I co- authored a fact sheet for each river basin in my study which will be published on the Colorado State University - College of Agricultural Sciences - Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics web page. Each fact sheet will contain the economic demo- graphic of the basin, a description of agriculture in the basin, the relative water supply and demand amounts in the basin and the future direction of our study. In addition, we'll be posting a fact sheet about the analysis and the model we are constructing. Additional funding for this project is provided by the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station. Occurence and Fate of Organic Wastewater Contaminants in Onsite Wastewater Systems and Implications for Water Quality Management Kathleen DeJong, Environmental Science and Engineering Ph.D. Candidate Colorado School of Mines 0 rganic wastewater contaminants (OWCs) such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products have received increasing attention in the last decade due to their possible adverse effects on ecosystems and human health. Several studies have identified wastewater as a primary contrib- uting source of OWCs to the environment, but few have quantified their occurrence in onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWS) and associated receiving environments. A substantial portion of the waste- water generated in the U.S. is processed by OWS before discharge to the environment. For example, in Colorado there are over 600,000 OWS in operation serving approximately 25% of the State's popula- tion and 7,000 to 10,000 new systems are being installed each year. As a result, over 100 billion liters of wastewater are being processed by OWS and then discharged to the environment every year in Colorado alone. A research project was initiated by the Colorado School of Mines in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey to determine the occurrence of OWCs in effluents produced from varying sources and by different types of onsite wastewater systems, to assess the fate and transport of OWCs in soil absorp -< • 'f �- •� iI i 4 E�. lion systems prior to groundwater and surface water recharge, and to assess the potential for OWCs to !F- impact receiving waters. Thirty OWS, 10 groundwater wells, and 9 surface waters in a Front Range region and Rocky Mountain region of Colorado were selected and sampled for conventional water and wastewater parameters and for a suite of OWCs. The OWS sites represented a range of sources: residential (single- family and multi- family homes), commercial (restaurants, con- venience stores, and retail centers), and institutional (veterinary hospitals, schools, and churches). Ten groundwater wells and 9 surface water sites were selected to be representative of the sampling region and samples were collected in conjunction with the OWS sites. Fellow CSM Ph.D. graduate student Jim McKinley and DeJong sampling septic tank effluent