Publications by authors named "Rakesh K Gelda"

The paired watershed monitoring approach is widely used to investigate hydrologic processes and water quality, providing streamflow and water quality records for long-term trend analysis, as well as data for developing and testing hydrologic models. In this study we use 20 years of streamflow and water quality data, along with a watershed model, to examine sources of stream nutrients and their changes over time in two small streams within the New York City water supply system. We compare sources and trends in stream nitrate and dissolved phosphorus in the urbanized Amawalk watershed with those of the predominantly forested Boyd Corners watershed in the Croton system of reservoirs.

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Storm events play a crucial role in organic matter transport within watersheds and can increase the concentration and alter the composition of NOMs and DBP formation potential. To assess the impact that storm events can have on drinking water quality, samples were collected and analyzed across four storm events in the Neversink River, Catskill region, New York in 2019 and 2022. Source water natural organic matter (NOM) was characterized, and the change of NOM quality was evaluated due to storm impacts.

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This work presents a retrospective analysis of long-term trends in loading of forms of nitrogen (N) from the Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant (Metro), N concentrations in the receiving urban lake (Onondaga Lake, New York), and related water quality status for the period from 1972 to 2007. The history of the evolution of treatment and discharge at Metro, as it affected N loading, is reviewed and forms the basis for identification of five regimes during which unifying conditions of loading and in-lake conditions prevailed. Changes in industrial waste inputs have complicated the effects of upgrades in treatment at Metro from primary (until 1978) to advanced (starting in 2004).

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