Event Description
Delaware River Watershed Initiative Speakers
You
are invited to attend the entire DRWI conference online for free,
which runs from 10:00 am – 4:30 pm. Our speakers will present the final two
papers in the conference. Register at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4th-annual-virtual-delaware-watershed-research-conference-tickets-119690181555
3:40-4:00 pm:
Erik Silldorf from Delaware Riverkeeper Network
Restoring Dissolved Oxygen in
the Delaware Estuary: Economic Valuation
Erik L. Silldorff,
Carolyn Alkire, and Sonia Wang
Renewed investment by regional
stakeholders seeks to bring the Delaware Estuary into full compliance with the
goals of the Clean Water Act and protective dissolved oxygen (D.O.) standards.
Our research seeks to evaluate candidate D.O. targets for the estuary, and to
quantify in economic terms the benefits of efforts to restore D.O. in the
Delaware River Estuary. Multiple lines of evidence have been used to develop
likely D.O. concentration distributions for the Delaware Estuary across the
D.O. sag zone from Philadelphia to Wilmington. From these D.O. distributions,
we have evaluated how changes to water quality affect the ecology of the
estuary’s ecosystem and how changes provide economic benefits to human
communities, with spatially explicit modeling of these benefits. We estimate
dissolved oxygen improvements under a “Moderate Restoration” scenario could
stimulate ecosystem service benefits totaling $44 million to $62 million
annually. This includes a one-time increase in property values ranging from
$540 to $840 million. These conservative estimates of total economic benefits,
when paired with the strictly ecological benefits themselves, can help inform
current policy making and can lead to the complete restoration of dissolved
oxygen and the fulfillment of Clean Water Act goals in the Delaware
Estuary.
4:00-4:20 pm: Shane McLoughlin
and Shannon McGinnis from Temple University
Understanding the Health Risks
due to Recreation along Wissahickon Creek: Preliminary Data from Summer 2020
Sampling
Shane McLoughlin, Shannon
McGinnis, Heather Murphy
Measuring health risks
due to recreation along natural waterways provides much needed information for
making recommendations around how and where to recreate safely. While
recreational activities such as swimming, wading, and fishing are frequently
observed at various sites along the Wissahickon Creek in Philadelphia, little
information is available around the potential health risks of recreating there.
To better understand this issue, in summer 2020, the Water, Health, and Applied
Microbiology (WHAM) Lab in Temple University’s College of Public Health
collected samples from 5 sites along the Wissahickon Creek in Philadelphia
where recreation occurs (n= 50 samples total). In addition, samples were
collected from two sites that are impacted by combined sewer overflows, along
Tacony Creek and Cobbs Creek in Philadelphia (n=20). While analyses are
ongoing, this presentation will share preliminary data on concentrations of
fecal indicator organisms measured during dry weather (>24 hours after
rainfall) and wet weather (<24 hours after rainfall) conditions at these
sites. In addition, this presentation will discuss how future analyses will use
quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) to estimate the risk of illness
due to the types of recreational activities that have been observed.
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