Where our water comes from

It occured to me that some of you may not know where your water comes from, and think, hey that last note wasn't really meant for me, cause get my water from the well, or from the city water supply. You do realize everything is connected, right?! And I mean really connected. The rivers and streams, lakes, ponds, are just where the ground water has reached the surface. SO when you pump water out of your well, you are lowering the water table, which will lower the level in the river. There are actually areas in the midwest, Ogallala aquifer area, where large flowing rivers have dried up becuase the water table has dropped so far because of the overpumping. Anyway, back to my sopabox. Where DOES you water come from? We were talking in class last night about people just turning the handle and water coming out. As long as that keeps happening people ARE NOT going to step up and take notice and do something about the problem. So let me explain something. The majority of the water in the US, that we drink, comes from surface water. This is water that is from rivers and lakes. If you live in a city, more than likely you get your water from here, there are a few that use groundwater, but surface water is more likely. This means you get your water from Lake Michigan, if you live in Chicago, Lake Erie if you live in Cleveland or Akron, The Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, and the MIssisissppi River, any of those cities that are along the river. Obviously you've seen some of those rivers up close and you wouldn't even want to swim in them, let alone drink out of them right then and there. So what happens to it? It gets sucked up by the water treatment plant, the solids get setttled out, stuff is added to make the rest of the gunk settle out, it's treated for biological stuff by using chlorine and then it's released into the pipes so that when we open the taps it's there. For those with well water, none of that happens and you hope that someone hasn't contaminanted your aquifer. Oh, if your from a city that uses ground water, they do treat it to some degree, but not as much as surface water, because there usually isn't dirt in it, so they usually just treat with chlorine. So then what happens to it. A little known fact 95% of the water that comes out of tap, goes down the drain. Think about it, what do you use water for? Laundry, dishes, showers, baths, cooking, where does that water go? SO then this water is taken in a pipe to the wastewater treatment plant. nasty place, if you've ever watched Dirty Jobs, he actually goes to one of them. yuck. Once the water gets to the plant all the "crap" is settled out. And i literally mean "crap"!!! (this process is a little more complicated but for ease of reading and understanding, i'll explain it like this) Bacteria is added to start breaking down the organic waste. After that, the water is moved through a system that cleans the dirt that is still in it out, the bacteria is removed, and the water is chlorinated and put right back were it came from. Yes, that means back into Lake Erie & Michigan, back into the Mississippi, back into the Allegheny river to be used again by some other municipality. So, you ask, what can you do change this mess that we have created. Many, many things. One, take shorter showers. I have a child that told me last week that when she's at home she take 30 minute showers!!!! WHAT??!!! she's not even 5 foot tall yet. When she's here, she will be getting a timer and be out a lot sooner than that. I need to let her read some of this stuff and maybe she'll change her tune. Fix leaks and drippy faucets. Turn the water off when you are brushing your teeth. Use rain water to water your lawns, flower beds and gardens. THere is a company in Mars, PA that sells used water barrels, for 10-15$. simple plastice barrels.I'm sure there are places in other cities that have them, just google it. Use the barrels to catch the water coming off the downspouts, or even set the barrel out in the yard to catch the rain. The majority of municipal water is wasted on watering lawns. yeah, i said wasted! there are better ways to water without using the stuff that comes out of the tap. The crappy part about this is that some zoning laws and ordinances prohibit you from doing this sort of thing. so DUMB, incredibly DUMB!!! whoever thought that up needs taken out back and shot. I'll get into why this has even more benefits in another diatribe later. If you can't use rain barrels, water your lawn in the morning, before the sun comes up. Less evaporates, more gets into the soil and your lawn is less likely to mold. You can water at night, but it's more likely to mold. And you really don't need to water for very long. Especially around here. The best fix for watering in arid places is to xeroscape your lawn. Put in native plants that are used to the dry weather. there are soe pretty cool, pretty ones that take very little water to maintain. And lastly, since it's a little more complicated. Use grey water to flush the toilets. This step here needs a little mechanical fixing to do, but it VERY doable. We watched a show last week about green things to help the environment and I think it only took an hour for the people to set it us and get hooked up. But when you think about it, your dish water isn't really that dirty, and what's in the toilet anyway. Not only will it save fresh water, it will save the waste water treatment plant as well, since there will be less water going there that they will have to treat. The problem with this is the same as the rain barrels, some construction and zoning laws will prohibit this. We need to start saying something to someone about the benfits of doing things like this or it won't happen as quickly as it needs too. So there are a few ways for you to help, and like I said i'll go on anther rant about stormwater later. I have homework I should be doing :)