Water Quantity

Reading Quest
Water, Water Everywhere
 75% of the earth is water
 1. 72% of the water in the world is in
the oceans
 2. Only 3% of the water in the world is
freshwater
 3. 2% of the freshwater is frozen in glaciers
 4. Only 1% of all the freshwater is
accessible for human use (the rest is frozen)
 If you look at the overall breakdown of
water, the majority of the usable freshwater
is actually found as groundwater.
 Fresh Water Sources
Surface Water Groundwater
Rivers, Streams, and Aquifers and
Lakes Springs
Texas Surface Water Resources
15 major river basins
191,000 miles of rivers
Canadian

and streams
Red

Sulphur
Cypress
Sabine
Brazos
Trinity

Rio Grande
Colorado
Neches 7 major estuaries
S
an
Ja

~ 200 springs
ci
G nt o
ua
S da Neches-Trinity
an lu
An p e Lavaca Trinity-San Jacinto
to San Jacinto-Brazos
ni
o
Nueces Brazos-Colorado
Colorado-Lavaca

6 million acres of
Lavaca-Guadalupe

San Antonio-Nueces

Nueces-Rio Grande
bottomland
hardwoods and
forested wetlands
 Surface Water
Distribution
 Surface water is easy to access.
 5. Surface water comes from rain run-off
that drains and collects in rivers and
lakes.
 6. Not all areas receive equal water:
 In the U.S. there is much more available
surface fresh water than in the west.
 The western part of the U.S. relies heavily
on groundwater
 The areas in which surface water
collects is called a watershed
 Watersheds
 7. Def. the area in which
all water, sediments,
and dissolved materials
drain from the land into
a common body of
water
 Watersheds are
important because they
return water, continuing
the water cycle
 Characteristics of a
Watershed
8. Physical
Characteristics
 Can be large or
small
 A large
watershed
consists of
many smaller
ones
The Mississippi River Delta is a very
large watershed, made up of hundreds,
 Characteristics of a
Watershed
8. The physical characteristics of the
land affects how and where water in
the watershed flows

Watersheds drain from higher to lower

elevations
www.digital-topo-
maps.com

Topographic Map
 Characteristics of a
Watershed
9. Water quality in the
watershed is directly
impacted by humans:
Anything that flows
down your storm sewer
goes directly into the
nearest body of water!!

Impacts include: Mining,

forestry, agriculture,
construction, urban street
runoff, parking lot runoff, Sewer pipes travel
chemically treated lawns and
gardens, failing septic to sewage
systems, leaking sewer pipes
etc. treatment plants,
but storm sewer
pipes drain directly
 Who Lives in a
Watershed?
 Everyone!
Major US Watersheds
 Russian Dolls and
Watersheds?
 Russian Dolls – each large doll has a
smaller doll inside

 Watersheds – each large watershed

is formed by many smaller
watersheds.
 The larger the body of
water, the larger the
watershed.
Mississippi River Watershed

Colorado River Watershed

San Gabriel River Watershed
 What is Ground Water?
 10. Groundwater comes from
run off that seeps deep into the
ground, filling underground
springs, streams, or aquifers

 It may take hundreds of years

for groundwater to “recharge”,
or fill back up again as we use
it.
What is the Water Table?
 11. The water table is the top portion of an
underground aquifer, that rises or falls according
to the amount of water available.
 The water table is typically higher in the spring
and lower in late summer
 Porous rock in aquifers hold water. The more
available space, the more water it can hold.

WATER TABLE
 Water Table
 12. The area in which the porous rock is filled
with water is called the saturated zone.
 12. The area of the porous rock that does not
contain water (located above the level of the
water table) is called the unsaturated zone.

Unsaturated
zone

Saturated zone
 Ground Water
Distribution
 13. Aquifers are areas underground,
usually made of porous rock, that has
water between the layers. This water is
accessible to humans through drilling
wells.
 Aquifers
 14. Materials that make the best
aquifers include:
 Material sorted into distinct layers
(limestone)
 Coarse-grained materials (sand and
gravel)
 Bedrock with large openings in the cracks

 Lava rock contains large spaces within

the rock to hold water
Major Texas Aquifers
 15. Porosity vs.
Permeability
 Both the porosity and permeability of the
material below ground determines the
overall ability of an aquifer to hold water

Porosity: Permeability:

The amount of water the The rate at which water

material can hold moves through a material.

The more spaces, or the Formations with large

larger the spaces, the more interconnected pores usually
porous the material transmit water more quickly.

Well sorted soils with the Permeability is important

same grain sizes hold more because it determines how
water than those with varying quickly pollutants pass
sizes through, and how quickly
 Ground Water
 16. Water returns, or
recharges, to its
groundwater source
very slowly.
 16. Recharge sources
include:
 rainwater or snowmelt
 Groundwater flow from
other areas
 Other bodies of water
that sit over an aquifer
can “lose” water to that
aquifer
 17. Recharge Areas
 Occur where permeable soil allows
water to seep into the ground
 They may be small or large
 They are only a fraction of the larger
aquifer below
 Material must be permeable for
water to pass into the aquifer below
 18. Discharge
 Discharge – when groundwater
leaves the ground either naturally or
because of human reasons
 Characteristics include:
 Area must be permeable to water
 Groundwater can discharge into
streams, rivers, etc.
 Man-made wells tap into groundwater,
causing artificial discharge
 19. Cone of Depression
 Caused from the discharge of
groundwater by using wells
 The area in which the well removes
the water causes a cone of
depression
 Click here for animation
Overuse of Groundwater
 20. If water is pumped out faster
than it can recharge, two things can
happen…
 The water table will drop
 The land could sink (subsidence)

 Click here for groundwater animation

 21. Subsidence
 This is caused when too much
groundwater is removed from
an area, and pressure from the
top layers condenses the empty
spaces. In other words, the land
sinks.

 22. Once an area has collapsed,

it cannot be undone.
 Subsidence in Las Vegas Valley
 Subsidence Near Coasts
 23. There are two main harmful
consequences of a collapsed area
near the coast:
 lowers the land below sea level,
causing flooding
 Sea water may move into the
groundwater areas, making the aquifer
A neighborhood area along
salty
the coast andHouston
between unusable
and Beaumnont sank due
to coastal subsidence.
Residents had to leave,
permanently.
 Hydrologists
 A hydrologist’s job is to study and
work with water to develop ways to
increase groundwater supplies
 24.Hydrologists are trying to fix the
groundwater issue by pumping
water back into the aquifers.
Human Water
Use and
Conservation
 Human Water Use
 1. Three things are putting more of a
demand on our water use:
 Increasing human population
 Agricultural demand from irrigation

 Need in industry and energy sources

 Drinking Water
 In most urban communities water is
withdrawn from either a surface water
body like a lake, reservoir, or stream,
or from a underground aquifer.
 It is then treated at a drinking water
treatment plant and distributed to
individual homes, businesses, and
industries through a network of
underground pipes.
 Human Water use
 Demands on freshwater are increasing everyday
due to personal needs of an increasing number of
people, and increasing number for industry and
agriculture.
 The more demands we have on water, may
increase temporary shortages around the globe.
 The western half of the US is faced with supply
problems because of it’s dry climate, population
increases, and agricultural demands, which have
led to increased use of groundwater.
 The groundwater is depleting at a very fast rate, and
the aquifer in the midwest US may have less than 30
years of useful life left.
 Even though water
recycles…
 2. If too many people require water during
the same period of time, then there may
not be enough water readily available…it
takes time for water to “recycle”
 Not all areas have the same amount of
water available
 Not all areas have surface water available,
and must use groundwater sources. When
the aquifers become too low, they will be
unusable.
 The Water Budget
 3. What is it?
 The availability of water in a given location
 If the supply of water doesn’t meet the
demand, then certain steps must be taken
in order to have enough for important
needs
 Water rationing, minimizing watering
yards, etc. may become necessary to meet
the needs of an areas water budget
 4. Rainfall in the U.S.
 Rainfall in the United States is not equal in
all parts
 The eastern half of the U.S. receives 2/3 of
the rainfall, and the western half only
receives 1/3
 The western half of the U.S. relies heavily
on groundwater to meet it’s needs
 5. The demand for water may soon become
higher than the supply can handle
 Aquifers in the west are shrinking rapidly!
 Dams and Reservoirs:
Humans have irrigated crops and built
dams to control water for centuries.
 6. Four uses of water from dams:
 Storage of water- for drinking, home use
 Reduce flooding- regulate flow of water

 Energy supply (hydroelectric power)-

generating electricity
 Irrigation of crops

 Recreational uses-- Many lakes are

formed from damming rivers, ie… Lake
Houston, Lake Conroe, Lake Livingston
 Dams and Reservoirs
 7. Four negative effects of dams:
 Destroys natural habitats of animals
 Displaces homes/people

 Disrupts fish migrations

 Alter water temperature and oxygen content

 Increases water loss- disrupting natural

stream flow
 Alter scenic areas

 Water losses are tremendous from dam

reservoirs.
Fish Ladders

 One way to protect

fish trying to swim
past dams is by
building a fish
ladder, as seen
here on the right.
This fish ladder is
located on the
Columbia River.
 8. The rate of water loss in
reservoirs is very high, because
there is a greater surface area of
water exposed to the sun.
This dam is
Evaporation increases.
similar to the
one that forms
Lake Houston
on the San
Jacinto River. It
is a dam created
for drinking
 Possible Solutions:
Desalination
 9. Desalination is the
9. Desalination is the
removing of the salt
from sea water, so that
it is fit for humans to
use as freshwater.
 10. The problem is it
uses a lot of energy, so
it costs a lot to do this.
 10. Another problem is  Desalination is an
the disposal of the
involved process
brine…the salt they
take out of the water.
using reverse
osmosis.
Desalination Plant Cost
 Solution: Water From
Icebergs
 11. The idea of melting icebergs for
water use is not a new idea. The
problems, however, include:
 It is very expensive and time consuming to
tow it
 We do not know the ecological
consequences
 We don’t know how much water would be
left in it by the time it reached its
destination
Solution: Cloud Seeding
 Silver iodide crystals are capable of
causing rain in areas that are lacking
when the compound is released in the
sky.
 12. Negatives include:
 Do we have the right to take rain away from
one area to meet the needs of another?
 Silver iodide is a poison that may harm the
ecosystem
 What effects would changing weather
patterns have on the planet?
 Conservation
 On average, every American uses about
150 gallons of water a day.
 Remember, water continually recycles. The
problem is that if too many people need it
at the same time, there eventually won’t be
enough to meet the needs of everyone.
 13. The focus of solving our water dilemma
involves conserving water where we can.
Even changing one or two practices can
help conserve water.
Conservation and
Legislation
 National Environmental
Policy Act
 1969
 Federal agencies must consider the
impacts of their actions on the
environment when building, or doing
industrial projects
 Clean Water Act
 1972
 The base for water quality standards
today
 National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination
System
 Protects surface waters by
regulating and reducing the amount
of pollution discharged into them
Safe Drinking Water Act
 1974
 requires public drinking water
systems to protect drinking water
sources, provide water treatment,
monitor drinking water to ensure
proper quality and notify the public
of contamination problems.
 Environmental
Protection Agency
 Also called the EPA
 Implements and authorizes permits,
establishing drinking water
standards, and enforces
environmental laws
 FUN FACTS
 It takes about 100 gallons of water to wash
your car
 It takes about 2000 gallons of water to
manufacture a car.
 Toilet: 3-5 gallons per flush
 Shower: 7 gallons per minute
 Bathtub: 35 gallons full tub
 Clothes washer: 30 gallons per load on a full
wash
 Dishwasher: 15 gallons per load on full wash
 Bathroom faucet: 2-5 gallons per minute