Last week I helped collect water quality samples in the Llobregat watershed with biologists Mia Morante, Pau Fortuño and Nuria Sanchez from the University of Barcelona. We were looking for macroinvertebrates that live under rocks and are useful for estimating water quality. Biologists have been collecting, classifying and counting these critters since 1994 and dumping them in a comprehensive database called ECOBILL. This data set provides nearly 15 years of information useful for extacting trend analysis. It occurred to me that this data set might uncover new information if it were meshed with another data set in the watershed, such as land cover change, or investments in wastewater treatment plants.The day long trip introduced me to lesser known parts of the Llobregat watershed. I was also very lucky to have Mia, Pau and Nuria who answered my endless questions. We started the day in the more industrial section of the Llobregat where the river smelt bad. Not surprisingly, as we moved upstream the water became clearer and more species of macroinvertebrates revealed themselves under the rocks.
Collecting data to confrim that the Llobregat is dirty, reminded me that my thesis cannot simply restate the obvious. Yes, there is a lot of crud in the river. But are there measures that can result in tangible or measureable improvements in water quality? How do river managers deal with daily or seasonal variability? What about all the relatively new wastewater treatment plants? These are the pride of the local water agency because they dump treated water into the river, and yet when it rains, there are severe combined sewer overflows. Looking into the future, what is beyond centralized waste water treatment? Decentralized treatment? Decentralized water re-use? Should our goal be to build more, bigger treatment plants, or reframe the entire process to something totally different?
