Contemporary issues in watershed and water quality modeling for eutrophication control

Three issues are discussed: controllability of nonpoint nutrient loadings using watershed models; the sometimes counter intuitive results from eutrophication models from nutrient controls for coastal waters; and the potential significant interaction of improvement in habitat for suspension feeding bivalves. For the Chesapeake Bay watershed model, and for Limit of Technology (LOT) controls, a 16% and 45% reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus, respectively, is calculated. For the Bay, it is concluded that removal of phosphorus only is less effective than nitrogen in improving bottom water DO because of differential transport of nitrogen downstream. For the Delaware estuary, a significant decline in phytoplankton chlorophyll has been observed in the absence of any nutrient controls but in the presence of improved DO. A simple model is offered that hypothesized an increase in benthic bivalve filtration of overlying water as a result of improvement in DO.