Additionally, as these reservoirs are used more as sources of drinking water supply to growing municipalities, new water quality issues and concerns surface where there are little or no data. Also there are increases in biological pollutants such as bacteria, giardia, cryptosporidium, and other pathogens. The objective of this effort is to select some key reservoirs and reservoir systems to investigate where there would be maximum opportunity to transpose knowledge. There needs to be a more intensive effort by qualified limnologists and scientists in order to answer the questions outlined above. Besides the management issues described in the above section, there are natural resource issues which need to be addressed.
Reservoirs are habitat to both native and non-native species, especially certain fish species.
In some case they serve as refugia for remaining populations of threatened or endangered species. In most cases there is little understanding of the basic ecology of these aquatic habitats. Therefore management decisions both by water operations personnel and by natural resource managers are often difficult. James F. LaBounty, D-8220, Denver Federal Center, Bldg. Dr. Holdren has expressed a high level of interest in establishing a monitoring program and database of trophic status in Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs.