Samantha, UR- What is a watershed?

Jim Cantore, an American meteorologist traveled a small Georgian town asking people, "What is a watershed?" Easy, if you're standing on the ground right now, just look down.  You as well as everyone around you are standing in a watershed.  A watershed is an area of land which drains into a body of water be that a river, stream, ocean estuary or bay.   Wherever you live drains to some water body, therefore you live in a watershed. In the United States and Canada, all of the water from the East of the Continental divide runs through different rivers and system, eventually flowing into the Atlantic Ocean while all of the water West of the divide flows into the Pacific.  

Watersheds are important because the streamflow and the water quality of a river are affected by things, human induced or not, happening in the land area "above" the river-flow point.  In this modern industrialized age our waters are becoming more contaminated with each passing year.   New Smyrna Beach is a highly active watershed with water coming in and out of every coast of the Island.  February, 2015 Volusia County participated in a 400 million dollar plan to protect water resources in the area.  This plan included; replacing septic tanks near springs and rivers, cleaning stormwater and improving wastewater treatment.  Although I did not see any mention about educating the public I believe that with enough data we could speak to the city in doing so. Volusia county coastal area is a complex, dynamic natural system compromised of barrier islands, estuarine systems and mainland watershed.  Canal Street Canal leads into the Indian River Lagoon which has five water quality monitoring stations.  I was able to attain information Canal Street Canal is a man- made subterranean canal, the contributing watershed is approximately 170.6 acres with a 5'x8' box culvert running along the south side of Canal street from the river westward of the FEC RR tracks which was recently upgraded in 2009/10. That becomes an open ditch and continues westward to Hickory Street intersection where the cross -section more so reflects a ditch or swale and should be considered the upstream most location.  The canal has an array of interconnected open swales, ditches as well as direct piping connections that feed into the canal.  This is all referred to in the city's Stormwater Master Plan.  I soon plan to attain this plan as well as the design plans for Canal Street.