Sustainable management of the Ohio River (USA) by an interjurisdictionally represented commission

1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 193-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan H. Vicory ◽  
Peter A. Tennant

In 1948 the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) was established to abate pollution of a major river basin in the United States. The commission consists of representatives of eight states in the Ohio River Valley and the United States Government. The necessity of such an interstate commission, representing multiple jurisdictions, reflects the nature of the Ohio River which is approximately 1,580 km in length, transverses six states, and is extensively used for public and industrial water supply, wastewater disposal, transportation, power generation and recreation. ORSANCO's programmes include coordination and communication, setting and enforcing wastewater discharge standards, operating key water quality monitoring programmes for the Ohio River and major tributaries, data assessments and studies to evaluate problems and programmes for remediation, and monitoring when spills occur. The Commission's approach to achieving improved water quality, while at the same time balancing the needs of the users of the river, is accomplished by successfully involving and integrating the various interests in river management (governmental agencies, industry, public utilities, other river users and the general public) into its programme planning and implementation. Thus an intergovernmental agency which encourages co-operation with non-governmental entities can be an effective approach to sustainable management of a major river.

2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (9) ◽  
pp. 235-242
Author(s):  
J.G. Schulte ◽  
A.H. Vicory

Source water quality is of major concern to all drinking water utilities. The accidental introduction of contaminants to their source water is a constant threat to utilities withdrawing water from navigable or industrialized rivers. The events of 11 September, 2001 in the United States have heightened concern for drinking water utility security as their source water and finished water may be targets for terrorist acts. Efforts are underway in several parts of the United States to strengthen early warning capabilities. This paper will focus on those efforts in the Ohio River Valley Basin.


Plant Disease ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 84 (8) ◽  
pp. 901-906 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerald K. Pataky ◽  
Lindsey J. du Toit ◽  
Noah D. Freeman

Maize accessions were evaluated in 1997, 1998, and 1999 to identify additional sources of Stewart's wilt resistance and to determine if reactions differed among accessions collected from various regions of the United States and throughout the world. The distributions of Stewart's wilt reactions rated from 1 (no appreciable spread of symptoms) to 9 (dead plants) were relatively similar among groups of accessions from all regions of the world except for those from the Mid-Atlantic/Ohio River Valley region of the United States, the southern United States, and the northeastern United States. The mean and median Stewart's wilt rating for 1,991 accessions evaluated in 1997 was 4. The mean Stewart's wilt rating for 245 accessions collected from the Mid-Atlantic/Ohio River Valley region was 3.1, which was significantly lower than that for accessions from all other regions. The mean rating for accessions from the southern United States was 3.7, which also was lower than mean ratings for accessions from all other regions. Ratings from trials in 1997 and 1998 were highly correlated (r = 0.87) for 292 accessions and 15 sweet corn hybrid checks evaluated in both years. Of 20 accessions rated below 2 in 1997 and 1998, seven were from Virginia, seven were from the Ohio River Valley or central Corn Belt of the United States, four were from the northern or western Corn Belt of the United States, and two were from Spain. Ratings for these accessions ranged from 1.7 to 3.1 in 1999. Ratings ranged from 2.6 to 3.7 for F1 hybrids of these accessions crossed with one of two susceptible sweet corn inbreds, CrseW30 or Crse16, which were rated 5.7 and 5.4, respectively. Based on the reactions of this collection of germ plasm, it appears that high levels of Stewart's wilt resistance are prevalent only among accessions collected from areas where the disease has been endemic for several years, whereas moderate levels of resistance can be found in accessions collected from nearly everywhere in the world.


1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 63-70
Author(s):  
A. H. Vicory ◽  
A. K. Stevenson

The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) is a government agency established in 1948 to control and abate pollution of the interstate waters of the Ohio River Valley. ORSANCO, represented by eight states of the Ohio Valley and the federal government, carries out water quality monitoring and assessment programmes, co-ordinates spill response activities, promulgates pollution control standards for the Ohio River, and co-ordinates the individual programmes of state and federal agencies. ORSANCO recognizes that public and political support are as important to effective river basin management as technical knowledge and activities. Because such support is so closely related to economic interests, ORSANCO and the National Park Service commissioned a survey project in May 1993 to compile readily available data to estimate the “value” of the Ohio River from several key standpoints. This information is intended to draw attention to the national significance of the Ohio River in its economic, cultural and natural resource dimensions, and to illustrate the magnitude of positive economic impacts to be realized by achieving water quality improvements. This project brought together for the first time information that will serve to enhance public and political awareness of the Ohio River Valley, and thus enhance support for aggressive environmental management.


2008 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 1573-1589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven A. Mauget ◽  
Jonghan Ko

Abstract Simple phase schemes to predict seasonal climate based on leading ENSO indicators can be used to estimate the value of forecast information in agriculture and watershed management, but may be limited in predictive skill. Here, a simple two-tier statistical method is used to hindcast seasonal precipitation over the continental United States, and the resulting skill is compared with that of ENSO phase systems based on Niño-3 sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) and Southern Oscillation index (SOI) persistence. The two-tier approach first predicts Niño-3 winter season SSTA, and then converts those predictions to categorical precipitation hindcasts via a simple phase translation process. The hindcasting problem used to make these comparisons is relevant to winter wheat production over the central United States. Thus, given the state of seasonal SOI and Niño-3 indicators defined before August, the goal is to predict the tercile category of the following November–March precipitation. Generally, it was found that the methods based on either predicted or persisted winter Niño-3 conditions were skillful over areas where ENSO affects U.S. winter precipitation—that is, the Southeast and the Gulf Coast, Texas, the southern and central plains, the Southwest, Northwest, and the Ohio River valley—and that the two-tier approach based on predicted Niño-3 conditions was more likely to provide the best skill. Skill based on SOI persistence was generally lower over many of those regions and was insignificant over broad parts of the central and southwest United States, but did lead the other methods over the Ohio River valley and the northwest. A more restrictive test of leading hindcast skill showed that the skill advantages of the two-tier approach over the central and western United States were not substantial, and mainly highlighted SOI persistence’s lack of skill over the central United States and leading skill over the Ohio River valley. However, two-tier hindcasts based on neural-network-predicted Niño-3 SSTA were clearly more skillful than both ENSO phase methods over areas of the Southeast. It is suggested that the relative skill advantage of the two-tier approach may be due in part to the use of arbitrary thresholds in ENSO phase systems.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 5709-5721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binod Pokharel ◽  
S.-Y. Simon Wang ◽  
Jonathan Meyer ◽  
Robert Gillies ◽  
Yen-Heng Lin

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document