AWWA ACE59894

Climate change is an important and well-studied phenomenon and historical data trackingchanges in weather and climate are readily available. Climate change could induce shifts in meanvalues for weather variables and/or cause new patterns in climate variability, both of which couldcause impacts on water demands, supplies, and source water quality. Water suppliers arebeginning to consider the potential impacts of climate change on future water supplies. However,the focus of past work has been on water quantity impacts (e.g., flooding and droughts) ratherthan on changes in water quality. This paper focuses on two aspects of climate change impactson selected water quality parameters for Lake Cachuma, near Goleta, California that include: anassessment of how various climate change scenarios impact lake source water quality; and,assessment of projecting seasonal to annual lake water quality changes using El Nino/SouthernOscillation (ENSO) indicators observed in prior seasons. The climate change assessmentindicates that a warming climate will increase the likelihood of taste and odor events during thedry season and of turbidity and apparent color if precipitation rates increase, while the ENSOassessment suggests that dry season ENSO is a strong predictor of regional wet seasonprecipitation, with opportunities to forecast increases in turbidity and color. Includes 5 references, tables, figures.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. - No.

Published:

06/17/2004

Number of Pages:

10

File Size:

1 file , 500 KB