Event Description
Chi Ho Sham, PhD, Eastern Research Group
Protection of
Drinking Water Supply Sources: Approaches, Challenges, and Successes
American
water utilities spend millions of dollars each year on source water protection
and related measurements. They understand the importance of source water protection
for maintaining a reliable water supply of optimal quality. They also
appreciate that, by dedicating resources to source water protection, they are
in turn saving resources that would otherwise have to be spent on water
treatment or using alternative, more expensive, and less convenient supplies. Source
water protection is often referenced as the front-line barrier in the multiple
barrier approach to protect drinking water. Spatial variabilities associated
with geography, history, ecosystem dynamic, land use, and policy make source water
protection a highly site-specific process that reflects the inherent diversity
of natural waters and the areas from which they are derived, along with other drivers
that affect source water quality.
This
seminar will examine the challenges, approaches, successes, and lesson learned as
related to source water protection efforts – e.g., the relationship of forest
cover and water quality, the impacts of agriculture practices on source water, the
effects of public policy on wildland fires and water utilities, and the linkage
between stormwater on water supply. This paper will summarize the findings of
the study and identify future research directions to further quantify the
relationship between watershed conditions and drinking water treatment cost.
Chi
Ho Sham is a Vice President and the Chief Scientist of Eastern Research Group,
Inc. Over the past three decades, he has worked extensively in drinking water
protection and water quality analysis. He has been principal investigators for
numerous water-related research projects and served on a number of National
Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine efforts. He is an active member
of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and is currently the chair of
its Technical and Educational Council (TEC) – overseeing and coordinating technical
and educational activities of the Association. He is also a member of the
advisory board of the Urban Watershed Research Institute and the Conservation
Law Foundation. Furthermore, he is an adjunct professor of the International
Development, Communities, and Environment program and a research fellow of the
George Perkin Marsh Institute at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
He received his B.A. from the University of Regina in Canada and his M.A. and
Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo.
Chi Ho Sham, PhD Linkedin Profile
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