Water Quality

The Extension Water Quality Program works with the University of Florida and other related agencies to educate the public on ways to maintain, restore, and enhance the quality of Indian River County’s waterbodies in order to support healthy ecosystems and appropriate public uses.

So, what do we mean by water quality?

Water quality is the condition of a waterbody (lake, river, stream, groundwater) in relation to human needs or values. The water quality condition is determined by measuring the chemical, physical, and biological content of the waterbody, which includes pH (acidity), turbidity, color, nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate, pesticides, and metals. Depending on the levels, the water quality may be good or impaired.

What are the factors that make water quality impaired?

One factor is the natural water quality of waterbodies such as minerals in the soil and sediments, the presence of nearby saline water, and how quickly groundwater recharges.

However, the major factor affecting water quality is contamination by human activity. As humans are changing the landscape, pollution is being introduced into water daily. The amount of stormwater runoff from urban, residential, and agricultural areas has increased due to an increase in the amount of drainage systems and man-made structures such as roads, parking lots, and houses. Although some water is taken up by plants and seeps into the groundwater, the remaining water falls on surface waters to the ocean and flows over land. As this water flows through the watershed, it picks up debris and other contaminants from urban, residential, construction, industrial, and agricultural areas. The runoff becomes increasingly polluted with sediment, nutrients, bacteria, metals, and toxic substances such as pesticides. This polluted runoff flows into our waterbodies such as the Indian River Lagoon. This type of pollution is known as nonpoint-source pollution.

To learn more about water quality, please browse through this web site.

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