The New Jersey Office of State Planning is collaborating with USGS to develop a computer model that forecasts the effect of land-use development on freshwater quality. NAWQA findings and data are the foundation on which the model is based. The model will be instrumental in educating local planning boards about nonpoint source pollution and will allow municipalities and local planning officials to visualize the impacts of development on freshwater resources in their communities.

In 1997, the NAWQA Program collected sediment cores from Town Lake in Austin, Texas, which revealed rapidly increasing concentrations of PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and continuing elevated levels of DDT and chlordane. These compounds most likely originate from the City of Austin because the lake receives significant input from the urban streams. As a result of these findings, the City of Austin collaborated with USGS to assess sediment chemistry in the urban streams and to track sources of the PAHs, along with metals and historically used organochlorine pesticides, such as DDT and chlordane.

A consortium of water, sanitation, and river districts, towns, counties, and the National Park Service in the Upper Gunnison River watershed, Colorado, is using NAWQA findings to determine the health of the watershed, given an urbanization rate of about 200 percent between 1970 and 1990. NAWQA findings on surface- and ground-water quality are informing decisions related to wastewater facilities versus traditional septic systems.

As a result of rapid growth in the coastal region of New Hampshire in the last decade, the Office of State Planning needs water-resource information to make informed decisions concerning the effects of growth on water quality. Using techniques developed by the NAWQA Program, the State office works with USGS to better understand these effects. In addition, NAWQA scientists in the New England Coastal Basins work with the University of Connecticut's NAUTILUS (Northeast Applications of Usable Technology for Land Use Planning and Urban Sprawl) Project to map impervious surface areas in four watersheds in eastern Massachusetts. Information from Project NAUTILUS, which is funded by USEPA and NASA, will also be used by the University of Connecticut's NEMO (Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials) Program to assist local land-use planners in understanding the effects of urban growth on water quality and methods to reduce nonpoint source pollution.

As a follow-up to NAWQA findings in the Upper Colorado River Basin, USGS works with officials in Grand County, Colorado, to assess the occurrence and sources of contaminants in the County's developing areas. Findings on elevated nutrients and algal growth below the towns garnered the political support needed to pass legislation requiring improved septic systems and annual septic system monitoring in an effort to prevent further water-quality degradation. In addition, developers now contribute to a fund on a per-lot basis that supports continued water monitoring.