Water Quality

To view CCMP activities related to Water Quality, click here.

The term "water quality" involves a broad range of issues important to the living resources and human uses of bays or estuaries and surrounding areas. These include, but are not limited to, physical properties such as water clarity, temperature, depth, sediment load, and hydrology; chemical properties such as salinity, dissolved oxygen levels, nutrient levels, and concentrations of organic chemicals, metals, and other toxins; and biological properties, including all life forms present in the water, including bacteria, plankton, aquatic vegetation, benthic invertebrates, amphibians, and fish. If any single property becomes impaired, water quality can diminish.

Mobile Bay's water quality is highly influenced by its natural geographic location, weather patterns of the watershed, and human uses. The Mobile Bay watershed, or drainage system, includes over two-thirds of Alabama and portions of Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi, making it the nation's sixth largest in area and fourth largest in discharge volume. As a result, urban and agricultural development in the Bay's surrounding areas as well as those far outside the coastal region impact its water quality characteristics.

Due to the large discharge volume of freshwater inputs entering Mobile Bay, approximately 4.7 million metric tons of sediment are deposited into the Bay annually. This material has a high percentage of silt and clay which can create a variety of environmental problems. Mobile Bay also receives more that 42,000 tons of nitrogen each year, and nutrient over-enrichment can lead to depletion of oxygen levels. Pollution introduced through defined point sources or non-point source discharge via stormwater run-off threatens the quality of Bay waters.

There are many examples of water quality issues that should concern us, including the few mentioned here. We have posted a comprehensive list of water bodies in the MBNEP study area listed as impaired on the Alabama 303(d) List since 1992.  If you would like to become involved in efforts to improve water quality, please call our office, (251) 431-6409 or email us.