Reducing Drinking Water COCs

Quantifying loads and assessing Management Strategies for reducing drinking water constituents of concern in watershed, 2005 – 2011.

Collaborating Organizations:

UC Davis Land Air Water Resources; Yolo County RCD; UC Davis Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; USGS; Bachand and Associates; Hydrofocus, Inc; UC Berkeley

Funding Organization:

State Water Resources Control Board, Proposition 50 Nonpoint Sources – CALFED Drinking Water

Project Description:

Dr. Bachand is the project manager on this collaborative three plus year study that examines ways to improve California’s drinking water at its source, long before it reaches local water-treatment plants. Using expertise from Bachand & Associates, UC Davis, the Yolo County RCD, USGS, and others, the project goals are to ascertain how carbon, nutrients, sediments and salts are produced and retained in agricultural landscapes and to identify practical land management practices for reducing surface water quality concerns. To reach these goals, the project studies water quality and constituent movement at scales ranging from laboratory to watershed level.

Bachand & Associates is responsible for the characterization of surface water hydrology and chemical fluxes at the watershed and field scale, and is actively involved in outreach. Specifically, our technical roles include the following:

  • Measuring flows and water levels in sloughs and using that information to create continuous flow records.

  • Monitoring field runoff during storm and irrigation events to quantify flow and characterize water quality.

  • Analyzing data to quantify load transport at different locations and scales and to discern links between land use and management practices and water quality components.

Publications and Final Reports

This project is currently ongoing. Below is a list of current publications:

P.A.M. Bachand, B.A. Pellerin, P.J. Hernes, W. Horwath, S. Deverel, J. Florsheim, N-H Oh, JF Saraceno; R.G.M. Spencer, B.A. Bergamaschi, L. Kavvas, S. Bachand, S. Prentice, D. Leighton, J. Wrysinski, Z.Q. Chen, N. Ohara, S. Jang, M. Cayar, L.Lan, and I. Haltas. 2011 Summarizing the Willow Slough Watershed Study: Quantifying Loads and Assessing Management Strategies for Reducing Water Constituents of Concern in Watershed. Final Outreach Report Prepared for the State Water Resources Control Board, Sacramento, California, SWRCB Project Number 04-173-555-2. November.

P.A.M. Bachand, B.A. Pellerin, P.J. Hernes, W. Horwath, S. Deverel, J. Florsheim, B.A. Bergamaschi, L. Kavvas, J. Wrysinski. 2010. Willow Slough Watershed Study: Management of Pollutant Loads from Major Agricultural land Uses and Development of Best Management Practices 2005 – 2010, A Summary. Outreach Summary in partial fulfillment of State Water Resources Control Board Agreement No. 04-173-555-0. November, 2010.

J.L. Florsheim, B.A. Pellerin, N.H. Oh, N. Ohara, P.A.M. Bachand, S.M. Bachand, B.A. Bergamaschi, P.J. Hernes and M.L. Kavvas. 2011. From deposition to erosion: Spatial and temporal variability of sediment sources, storage, and transport in a small agricultural watershed. Available on USGS, "Geomorphology" 132(3-4): 272-286, Published: 2011.

Oh, N.; Pellerin, B. A.; Bachand, P. A.; Bergamaschi, B. A.; Horwath, W. R. 2008. Impacts of Agricultural Practices on Concentrations and Fluxes of Dissolved Organic Carbon. Abstract Available on Harvard Astrophysics Data System, "American Geophysical Union", Eos Trans. AGU, 89(53), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract H21H-0949, Published: 2008.

Saraceno, JF , B.A. Pellerin, B.D. Downing, E. Boss, P.A.M. Bachand and B.A. Bergamaschi. 2009. High-frequency in situ optical measurements during a storm event: Assessing relationships between dissolved organic matter, sediment concentrations, and hydrologic processes. Available from USGS, "Journal of Geophysical Research", 114, G00F09, Published: 2009.

Hernes, P.J., R.G.M. Spencer, R.Y. Dyda, B.A. Pellerin, P.A.M. Bachand, and B.A. Bergamaschi. 2008. The role of hydrologic regimes on dissolved organic carbon composition in an agricultural watershed. Available from Science Direct, "Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta" 72 (2008) 5266–5277, Published: 2008.