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Abstract
Human activities, such as residential development, urbanization, and deforestation can have profound effects on water quality in streams, lakes, and oceans worldwide. Water is a critical resource and must be managed and protected as such. Monitoring and understanding human effects on water resources is necessary for maintaining usable water supplies. Our studies describe both the effects of residential development on water quality in a major drinking water source and an attempt to improve the capacity of practitioners to monitor their respective drinking water sources. Specifically, we assess the potential effects of onsite wastewater treatment on reservoir water quality and evaluate the accuracy of in-situ chlorophyll-a monitoring techniques. Based on our results, the main source of water quality variation in our study area was linked to precipitation events and is most likely stormwater or surface runoff. We also propose a method for improving the accuracy of in-situ chlorophyll-a fluorescence data.