Success Stories and Case Studies

Success stories and case studies about many environmental topics.

Success Stories

• Biological Assessments Wetland Projects
  Case studies for 15 states that includes case history, project history, study design, monitoring information and lessons learned.
  
  
• Corridor Restoration National Showcase Watersheds
  A site built in response to the Clean Water Action Plan that showcases the efforts of 12 groups to rebuild, repair, or improve their watershed.
  
  
• Clean Marinas Clear Value
  Environmental and Business Success Stories
  This study focuses on the economic benefits realized by marina managers who have implemented management measures at their marinas.
  
  
• Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment and Wildlife Habitat Seventeen case studies with photos. The potential for achieving improved water quality while creating valuable wildlife habitat has lead to a growing interest in the use of constructed wetlands for treating and recycling wastewater.
  
  
• Section 319 Nonpoint Source Success Stories (1994)
  This site demonstrates the successful implementation of the Section 319 Clean Water Act Nonpoint Source program. The report provides examples of successful solutions to a variety of water quality problems caused by nonpoint source pollution.
  
  
• Section 319 Success Stories: Volume II (1997)
  More examples of successful solutions to a variety of water quality problems caused by nonpoint source pollution.
  
  
• Section 319 Success Stories: Volume III (2002)
  
  
• National Estuary Program Success Stories
  The flexible and collaborative nature of the NEP has allowed the local Estuary Programs to develop many innovative approaches to address these problems, approaches uniquely tailored to local environmental conditions, and to the needs of local communities and constituencies. At the same time, the national structure provided by the NEP has facilitated the sharing of successful management approaches, technologies, and ideas.
  
  
• Ground Water Protection Success Stories
  There are many success stories of people who are making a difference in protecting their ground water. Some of them are large coordinated projects, while some are smaller individual efforts.
  
  
• Cutting the Waste Stream in Half. Community Record Setters Show How (PDF)
  Waster Reduction Record Setters Project fosters development of exceptional waste reductions programs by documenting successful ones.
  
  
• How Local Action Can Improve Water Quality
  Information about case studies that describe how local efforts resulted in improved water quality in 5 watersheds.
  
  
• Ecological Protections, Restoration Techniques, and Model Programs Across the Great Lakes Basin.
  Final reports of projects funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Great Lakes National Program Office demonstrate the successes of ecological protection and restoration techniques and model programs across the Great Lakes basin.

Case Studies

• WATERSHEDS
  
  
  • Spotlight:Watersheds at Work
    Showcases examples of watershed protection groups making a difference in the health of their watershed. Updated every 1 to 2 months.
    
    
  • Top 10 Watershed Lessons Learned
    This set of lessons learned was developed in partnership with over 100 watershed practitioners. It includes summaries and examples.
    
    
  • Drinking Water Source Protection: Case Studies in Watershed Management
    Municipal water suppliers are looking outward to solutions, partnering with local community members and pollution control programs to implement local management strategies to maintain or improve the quality of their water sources.
    
    
  • Also, find out what Girl Scouts are doing to help protect their local watersheds through a new Water Drop Patch Project.
    
    
  • Monitoring consortiums
    The purpose of this module is to demonstrate the value of monitoring consortiums and describe case studies where they have operated successfully.
    
    
  • Trading Programs Case Studies
    One case study and 4 project updates from EPA's trading program. EPA strongly promotes the use of effluent trading to achieve water quality objectives and standards.
  
  
• CLEAN LAKES
  
  
  • Phosphorus Inactivation and Wetland Manipulation
  • Use of Aquatic Weevils to Control a Nuisance Weed in Lake Bomoseen, Vermont
  • Watershed and In-lake Practices Improve Green Valley Lake, Iowa
  
  
  
• Clean Marina Case Study Listing
  Listed alphabetically, by state this page contains summaries of the marina case studies.
  
  
• Ecological Restoration: A Tool To Manage Stream Quality
  Six summaries of case studies.
  
  
• TMDL
  • TMDL Case Studies #1-13
    A TMDL or Total Maximum Daily Load is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards, and an allocation of that amount to the pollutant's sources.
    
    
  • APPENDIX: Case Studies
    Two case studies are summarized
    • Deep Creek, Montana, TMDL
    • Redwood Creek, California, TMDL
  
  
• WATER QUALITY MONITORING
  A national newsletter that focuses on Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring presented the following case studies in past issues.
  • Case Studies: Macroinvertebrate Monitoring
  • Case Studies: Lake Monitoring
  • Case Studies: Volunteers Monitor Channel Morphology
  
  
• Onsite/Decentralized Wastewater Systems Case Studies
  
  
• Case Studies in Wellhead Protection
  Ten Examples of Innovative Wellhead Protection Programs
  
  
• Contaminated Sediment This chapter contains two sections of case stories.
  12.1 Case Studies of Human Health Risks
  12.2 Case Studies of Ecological Effects/Risks
  
  
• Case Studies from the Proceedings of Watershed '96 Conference
  
  
  • Comprehensive Watershed Analysis Tools: The Rouge Project_A Case Study
    
    
  • Nanticoke Watershed Alliance: A Case Study in Forming a Grassroots Watershed Organization
    
    
  • Brinkley Manor Run: A Case Study in Geomorphologically-Based Stream Restoration Design in Prince George's County, Maryland
    
    
  • Comprehensive Solutions for an Urban Watershed-A Case Study of the Beaverdam Creek Watershed
    
    
  • Biological Monitoring Program Design to Address Questions at Multiple Geographic Scales - A Case Study
    
    
  • Meeting the Goals of an Urban Subwatershed Study - A Case Study
    
    
  • Building Partnerships-A Case Study of the Umatilla River Watershed
  
  
  
• COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
  • Community Based Environmental Programs - Case Studies
    A geographically diverse set of community based projects described.
    
    
  • Planning Environmentally Aware Events
    Three short profiles of events that made an effort to be aware of the environment.
    
    
  • Global Warming Case Studies

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