Feeling Smart? Test Your Watershed IQ

The quiz that follows is intended to gauge your knowledge of the urban watersheds you live in and as well as some of the impacts of stormwater pollution. Answer these thirty multiple choice questions and test YOUR watershed IQ:
(This appears on The Center For Watershed Protection’s website: http://www.cwp.org/ )
Answers are listed at the bottom.

1. A watershed is generally defined as:

a. a building that stores water

b. all the land area that drains to a given point in a water body

c. all the water area that drains to a given point in a landform

d. a moment in time when you cross into a new area

e. a new way of organizing environmental agencies


2. Percentage of Americans who can correctly answer the first question, according to national surveys.

a. 41%

b. Every red-blooded American

c. 20%

d. 69% of college educated males that stop to ask for directions

e. 0%, and we shouldn’t teach the subject in our schools


3. On average, how much land is converted to urban land use in the United States each year?

a. 500,000 acres

b. over one million acres

c. no net loss

d. 9.4 acres

e. 49,000 Walmart equivalents


4. Which of the following comprises the greatest percentage of impervious cover in suburban areas?

a. rooftops

b. lawns

c. roads, parking lots and driveways

d. vacant lots


5. Which is best watershed management unit for conducting local watershed management plans?

a. sub-basin

b. watershed

c. basin

d. subwatershed

e. catchment


6. Which is the largest watershed management unit?

a. sub-basin

b. watershed

c. basin

d. subwatershed

e. catchment


7. Which of the following pollutants are frequently found in most samples of urban stormwater runoff? (select all that apply)

a. dilithium

b. laetrile

c. total phosphorus

d. vanadium

e. copper

f. prozac

g. zinc

h. fecal coliform bacteria


8. Stream order is a technique to:

a. classify different streams based on their relative location in the
drainage network

b. stop stream disturbance by issuing a regulatory permit

c. prevent flow from running downhill


9 . When a first order stream flows into another first order stream, the resulting stream order is:

a. first order

b. second order

c. third order

d. back ordered

e. fluvial-3


10. First and second order streams comprise what percent of the total stream and river mileage of the United States?

a. 10%

b. 48%

c. 67%

d. 100%


11. How much land in a watershed is taken up by a stream buffer network that extends a distance of 100 feet from either side of the stream?

a. 15%

b. 25%

c. 5%

d. 0%, nobody is going to ever take my land


12. Recent watershed research has discovered that urban stream quality begins to sharply decline once impervious cover in a watershed exceeds:

a. 45%

b. 10%

c. 75%

d. 125%

e. 3.1414 %


13. The residential zoning category that produces the amount of impervious cover at which stream quality begin to decline is:

a. ten acre lots

b. one acre lots

c. * acre lots

d. townhouses

e. apartment buildings


14. What fraction of the total water supply on the planet is available for use by humans?

a. 0.1 percent

b. all of it

c. 25 percent

d. 48%


15. How many gallons of water fall on a one acre yard during a one inch rainfall?

a. 27,200 gallons

b. none, the rain falls only plains of Spain

c. 4 imperial gallons + one pint

d. enough to flood my basement

e. 45,000 gallons


16. How much more stormwater runoff is produced by a one acre parking lot compared to a one acre meadow?

a. 6%

b. 78%

c. no difference

d. 100%

e. 1600%


17. According to the US EPA, what percentage of river pollution is caused by urban stormwater runoff in the nation?

a. virtually none, industrial pollution is the major problem

b. virtually none, trees cause pollution

c. 21 percent

d. 99 percent

e. 11 percent


18. How many Americans can correctly identify that stormwater runoff is a common sourceof pollution of streams, rivers, and oceans?

a. 3%

b. 22%

c. 30%

d. 34%

e. every red-blooded American understands this concept


19. A single quart of motor oil dumped down a storm sewer creates an oil slick of what size?

a. no slick, sinks to bottom

b. no slick, oil travels from storm sewer to treatment plant

c. 160 square feet

d. 2 acres

e. twice the size of the Exxon Valdez


20. What percentage of the urban population of the United States relies on groundwater for its drinking water?

a. 4.8 %

b. 22%

c. 30%

d. 90%

e. 0%, everybody drinks bottled water


21. What percentage of Americans rely on septic systems to dispose of their wastewater?

a. none, we have achieved universal sanitation except in some really
rural areas

b. 16%

c. 21%

d. 25%

e. 37%


22. What percentage of Americans that own a septic system don’t know where it is located on their property.

a. every red-blooded American knows where his or her septic system is.

b. 12%

c. 2%

d. 0%

e. 67%


23. On average, how many pounds of nitrogen are discharged to ground water from a properly operating septic system each year?

a. 10 pounds per person using the system

b. nitrogen is fully treated by the septic system

c. 32 pounds, 4 shillings and three pence

d. the equivalent of a herd of cows


24. Which of the following statements about urban lawns is false?

a. some common pesticides applied to lawns are routinely detected in
urban streams

b. few people take soil tests before applying fertilizers to their lawn

c. atmospheric deposition supplies at least a third of the nutrients
needed for a lawn

d. lawns produce no runoff


25. If lawns were a crop, where would they stack up in terms of total area in the United States?

a. 5th, after corn, wheat, soybeans and hay

b. 2nd, after illegal marijuana

c. 24th, it’s a big country

d. 9th, after corn, wheat, soybeans, hay, cotton, sorghum, rice, and
millet.

e. 42nd, (right behind emu ranching)


26. How many pounds of active pesticide ingredients are applied to lawns in our country each year?

a. 18 million

b. 0.2 million

c. no one uses pesticides since Silent Spring was published

d. 54 million

e. 70 million


27. How many pounds of grass trimmings are generated by the average suburban lawn each year?

a. 1500 pounds

b. none, the rabbits eat it all

c. 6 pounds, eight ounces

d. 2,100 long tons


28. How many fecal coliform bacteria are produced by an average sized dog dropping?

a. 49

b. 1200

c. 3 billion

d. what a disgusting question

e. trick question, dogs only produce fecal streptococci bacteria


29. According the EPA, water pollution prompted closings or swimming advisories at how may beaches around the country in 1996?

a. three in New Jersey, one in Florida

b. 1000

c. 2500

d. none

e. 216


30. What well known American said "When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water"?

a. Will Rogers

b. Aldo Leopold

c. Chris Rock

d. Ben Franklin

e. Mark Twain



Watershed Quiz Answers

1.b
2.a
3.b
4.c
5.d
6.c
7.c, e, g, h
8.a
9.b
10.c
11.c
12.b
13.b
14.a
15.a
16.e
17.e
18.b
19.d
20.c
21.d
22.b
23.a
24.d
25.a
26.e
27.a
28.c
29.c
30.d