Student: Bee Kelsch
Graduation date: May 2017
Capstone type: Thesis
Capstone project:
Unfiltered Drinking Water Systems in Oregon: Resilience to Climate and Land Use Change
Capstone file(s): Show file | Show file
Most water systems in the have historically been controlled in a way that assumes an unchanging climate. These assumptions are built into water law and water rights policies, into the infrastructure that provides us with flood control, electricity and drinking water, and into the way we manage land and produce food. While many studies have looked at the effects that climate change will have on water supply, few have examined the impacts climate change will have on water quality, and more specifically the water that we drink. Climate and land use change both are expected to increase sedimentation in water supplies, which leads to an increase in bacteria, nutrients, and the formation rate of Disinfectant by Products (DBPs). In addition, an increase in temperature could mean a change in bacteria growth rate, increased nitrification, and could possibly lead to increase in disinfectant needed to maintain clean drinking water. While many water systems have the infrastructure to withstand these changes, unfiltered drinking water systems are particularly susceptible to climate change induced water quality risks because they can’t take out sediment or bacteria. In the Pacific Northwest, climate change is expected to change the distribution and intensity of rainfall events; this has serious implications for water quality, especially in systems that are less resilient. This project investigates the ways in which climate change is expected to impact water quality in the unfiltered drinking water systems in Oregon, and evaluates what political and technological solutions will work best to make each system more resilient.