NSFC offers free book about protecting watersheds

MORGANTOWN, WV, Aug. 7, 2001 — A book titled Watershed Protection: A Statewide Approach is now available from the National Small Flows Clearinghouse (NSFC).

Produced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water, this book is one of two watershed protection guides designed for state water quality managers and others involved in watershed-based activities as they adopt, implement, and evaluate watershed protection programs. The book discusses the premise of the watershed protection approach: that many water quality and ecosystem problems are best solved at the watershed level rather than at the individual waterbody or discharger level.

This 81-page book may be useful to planners, local and state officials, and the general public. The book is free. To order, call the NSFC at (800) 624-8301 or (304) 293-4191 or e-mail [email protected] and request Item #GNBKGN14.

Funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Small Flows Clearinghouse (NSFC) helps small communities find affordable wastewater treatment alternatives to protect public health and the environment. Located at West Virginia University, the NSFC is a nonprofit organization established in 1979 under an amendment to the 1977 Clean Water Act. Since that time, the NSFC has become a respected national source of information about "small flows" technologies-those systems that have fewer than one million gallons of wastewater flowing through them per day-ranging from individual septic systems to small sewage treatment plants.

Anyone who works with small communities to help solve wastewater treatment problems can benefit from the NSFC's services, which include more than 450 free and low-cost educational products, a toll-free technical assistance hotline, five computer databases, two free publications, and an online discussion group.