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As natural resource stewards, we need to understand the interdependent relationships of elements that affect our natural resources. The long-term viability and quality of our environment depend on dynamic and complex interactions among air, water, land, plants, animals, and culture. Water is particularly significant because it constitutes 70 percent of our environment. Its presence or absence can profoundly influence other resources. Thus, a good basis for managing natural resources is to understand the water environment. Watersheds are an important element of this environment.

Watersheds have a big impact on the water cycle. A watershed, also called a drainage basin, is the area in which all water, sediments, and dissolved materials drain from the land into a common body of water, such as a river, lake or ocean. A watershed encompasses not only the water but the surrounding land from which the water drains. This can be an area as large as the Mississippi River drainage basin or as small as a backyard.

A watershed may be either a large or small area, and its characteristics can greatly affect how water flows through the watershed. For example, the flow in a particular stream may fluctuate dramatically with rainfall because of the characteristics of the watershed. Heavy storms may cause streams to rise rapidly. Human-made features of the watershed like dams or large paved areas can change stream flow and alter the watershed. If the topography is steep, changes in stream flow due to runoff can be significant.

In some watersheds, stream flow may take a long time to respond to rainfall runoff. On heavily vegetated, relatively flat terrain, infiltration is great, or runoff is slowed by vegetation. Eventually, however, runoff will make its way through the watershed and become stream flow. In these areas, stream flow will rise slowly, but also recede slowly.

The stream flow characteristics of a watershed can be a key to evaluating the quality of the water in the watershed. Streams start out in higher elevations, and flow downward, eventually finding their way to the sea. But they don't travel in straight lines. Their paths vary. The terrain may be steep in some areas, causing rapid flow, and flat in other areas, allowing the water to get deeper and spread out. These grade changes create different habitats in the stream which support different forms of life and change the quality of water in the watershed.

Everybody is Somebody's Neighbor...

Water quality is critically impacted from everything that goes on within the watershed. Mining, forestry, agriculture, and construction practices, urban runoff from streets, parking lots, chemically treated lawns and gardens, and failing septic systems, and improperly treated municipal sewage discharges all affect water quality. Reducing pollution and protecting water quality requires identifying, regulating, monitoring, and controlling potential pollutants. Some examples of control practices include protecting streambanks and shorelines by maintaining vegetated buffer strips, treating all wastes to remove harmful pollutants, or using grass-lined catchment basins in urban areas to trap sediment and pollutants.

Watershed Terminology

Aquifer	An underground geological formation able to store and yield water.
Buffers	Established strips of perennial grass or other erosion-resisting vegetation used to reduce runoff and erosion and improve water quality.
Discharge	An outflow of water from a stream, pipe, groundwater aquifer, or watershed.
Floodplain	The area on both sides of a stream where flood waters spread out during heavy rains.
Groundwater	Water found in the spaces between soil particles and cracks in rocks underground. Groundwater is a natural resource that is used for drinking, recreation, industry, and growing crops.
Hydrologic cycle	(also known as the water cycle) The paths water takes through its various states--vapor, liquid, solid--as it moves throughout the ocean, atmosphere, groundwater, streams, etc.
Nonpoint source pollution	Wide-spread overland runoff containing pollutants; the contamination does not originate from one specific location, and pollution discharges over a wide land area.
Point source pollution	Pollutants discharged from any identifiable point, including pipes, ditches, channels, sewers, tunnels, and containers of various types.
Runoff	Precipitation that flows over land to surface streams, rivers, and lakes.
Saturation zone	The portion below the earth's surface that is saturated with water is called the zone of saturation. The upper surface of this zone, open to atmospheric pressure, is known as the water table.
Surface water	Water above the surface of the land, including lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, floodwater, and runoff.
Wastewater	Water that contains unwanted materials from homes, businesses, and industries; a mixture of water and dissolved or suspended substances.
Water quality	The chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water with respect to its suitability for a particular use.
Water table	The top of an unconfined aquifer; indicates the level below which soil and rock are saturated with water.
Wetlands	Lands where water saturation is the dominant factor in determining the nature of soil development and the types of plant and animal communities. Other common names for wetlands are sloughs, ponds, and marshes.

Watersheds in Clark County

Muddy Fork	Ohio River
Silver Creek	Upper 14-Mile Creek
Lancassange Creek	Camp Creek