Water Conservation

Earth is known as the water planet. “Over 70% of the planet is covered by water” (Robertson, P. 94). Ironically only a small percentage is fresh, ready to use drinking water. The rest is either salt water or fresh water that is frozen or no accessible to humans. Most of the world’s fresh water comes from lakes or pounds that is replenished by rain. This is a naturel hydrologic cycle. Since this is a cycle, the problem is not that the world is running out of water, we are just pulling water out of the cycle faster than it is being replaced. The is a symptom of overpopulation, uneven disruption, and overuse.

Some places in US get very little rain and rely on other parts of the country to supply water. An example of this is California. The southern 2/3 of the state has a high demand of water for consumption by humans and for agriculture. This area only gets a few inches each year. The northern part of the state receives hundreds of inches of rain each year. “A massive system of pies, tunnels, and canals call the Central Valley Project moves water from northern California to the cites and farm lands to the south” (Robertson, P. 94).

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Water conservation is one way to fix the water crisis we are having, this can be done in two different ways through the supply or demand side. In the supply side, “we can find new ways to harvest rainwater, desalinizing seawater or protecting an aquifer or a watershed that supplies drinking water” (Robertson, P. 101). New York City rain into problems with their drinking water in the 1900’s because of increased development in the Catskill Mountains. The water was no longer up to EPA standards for drinking water. They had two options, build and operate an extremely expensive water filtrations plant or purchase forest land to create one of the largest watershed communities in the country. New York ended up doing the ladder. The EPA has certainty tested the water and it is one of the cleanest drinking waters in the country. On the demand side, initiatives include installing low-flow plumping fixtures, repairing leaks and recycling water from cooling systems.

https://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/education/watersheds/img/watershed-promo3.jpg

Fun facts, toilet flushing is the largest single use of water in the United States. Before low flow bath fixtures, most toilets would use on average 4-7 gallons per flush. Now after the EPAct, most toilets use only 1 or less gallon per flush. That is a great start to conserving water.  Other water conservation efforts are using grey water, which is water collected from sinks, showers, clothes washers and other similarly activities. This “grey water” is not up to drinking water standards but can be used to water plants, use in toilets and recreational use.

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