Transcript Water Use and Management

One of Our Basic Needs
1.
What are the concerns about water quantity?
2.
What are the concerns about water quality?
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How much fresh water is available?
Understand the water cycle (components and
flow)
Understand where we our fresh water comes
from
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What percent of the Earth’s water is
fresh water?
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Fresh Water – 2.4%
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Salt water – 97.6%
ocean
fresh
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What percent of fresh water is:
◦ Groundwater?
◦ Surface water?
◦ Ice & snow?
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Fresh, surface water – 0.8%
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Groundwater – 12%
ice & snow
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Ice and snow – 87.2%
groundwater
fresh, surface water
Question: Where is the earth’s fresh, surface water found?
1.
Liquid fresh (surface) water is found in:
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3.
Atmosphere
Ground water (soil moisture)
Lakes & reservoirs
Moisture in plants and animals
Rivers and streams
Wetlands
Rank these 6 fresh water sources (above)
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The most fresh water (1) to the one that has the least
fresh water (6)
Estimate the percentage of each of the 6 sources
Lakes & reservoirs - 45.7%
 Ground water - 23.8%
 Moisture in plants and animals - 23.8%
 Atmosphere - 4.8%
 Rivers and streams - 1.6 %
 Wetlands - 1.3%
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What are the major components of the water
cycle?
Condensation
Precipitation
Evaporation
Runoff
Transpiration
Infiltration
Groundwater
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What is a watershed?
Why do we discuss/study/use the term
watershed?
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Watershed - an area or region of land that
drains into a lake, stream or river.
◦ Ridges of higher land on the ground separate
watersheds from each other.
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The quantity and quality of water in
streams, rivers, or lakes are dependent on
what happens in its watershed.
Where the water goes.
*
* Kankakee
watershed, draining to
IL River (straightened
to drain wetlands for
crops)
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What percent of Indiana’s drinking water
comes from surface water?
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What percent of Indiana’s drinking water
comes from surface water?
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40% of Indiana households drink surface water.
60% of Indiana households use ground water,
including everyone who uses a well.
Public water systems use both ground and surface
water, depending on where they are located and
what is available.
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Where do wells pull water from?
What type of geologic formations are used (2 most
prominent)?
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Wells draw water from aquifers that hold water
The two prominent types of geologic
formations used:
◦ Sand or sand & gravel formation that stores water in
the spaces between particles
◦ Rock formation that stores water in fissures or cracks
and joints
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How can wells become contaminated?
What can you do to protect your well?
Zone of Management
Zone of Exclusion
Well
Well
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Source
Typical required
separation distances
Septic tank and absorption field
Above-ground storage tanks with secondary
containment (increase separation distance for
tanks without secondary containment)
50 - 100 ft
10 ft
Manure storage or application area
Pesticide mixing or loading area
200 ft
Landfill, garbage dump
Existing properly constructed well or properly
sealed abandoned well
200 ft
100 ft
10 ft
Surface water (streams, lakes, ponds)
25 ft
Any structure
10 ft
Outer boundary of any road
20 ft
Property boundary
15 ft
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Protect the well casing
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Inspect the casing and cap regularly
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Keep well records and know where they are
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Protect the well from contaminants
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Landscape around the well to protect it from
lawn mowers and other equipment
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Follow all manufacturer maintenance
recommendations
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Well life span is usually 20 to 30 years
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How did the 2012 drought affect you/your
family/friends water supply?
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The January-July period was the warmest
first seven months of any year on record for
the contiguous United States. The national
temperature of 56.4°F was 4.3°F above the
long-term average.
More than 40,000 daily heat records were
broken during the six hottest months.
The first seven months of 2012 were drier
than average, ranking as 15th driest
January-July on record.
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The hot, dry summer followed a warm
winter. In many Western river basins,
snowpack — the lifeblood of rivers and
essential for irrigation — was a fraction of
the historical average.
Not even the stereotypically wet Southeast
was spared. Central Georgia is mired in its
second historic drought in the last five
years, and the Flint River, vital for the
state’s agricultural corridor, is seeing its
lowest July flows ever.
Instruments on NASA’s Terra satellite compare plant growth in the first part of
July to average conditions over the last decade. Green areas show vigorous
growth, whereas brown areas indicate stunted crops.
(Image courtesy NASA)
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When the demands on a hydrologic system increase
— when cities grow, when farming becomes more
intensive and when water withdrawals increase—
the consequences of heat and cloudless summer
months are magnified.
In other words, a moderate dry period may now
produce more serious effects than it would have in
the past. A city of 100,000, for instance, is much
more vulnerable than a city of 40,000, if water-use
behaviors remain the same.
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Dr. Jane Frankenberger
YouTube video
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What can this drought teach us?
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Worldwide
◦ There are three categories of water users:
agricultural, domestic, and industrial.
◦ What percent % does agriculture use?
◦ What agricultural practice uses the most water?
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Agriculture uses:
◦ 67% of water withdrawn (total amount removed for
any purpose)
◦ 85% of consumption (water withdrawn for human
use)
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The agricultural practice that uses the most water
is irrigation (particularly inefficient methods)
History:
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1988: Drought focused attention on need for
statewide plan to minimize impacts of a water
shortage
1991: Indiana General Assembly enacted HB 1260
which required DNR to develop Water Shortage Plan
1994: Water Shortage Plan completed with input
from Industry, Agriculture, Public Water Supplies,
Municipalities, Environmental Groups, Government
Agencies, etc.
July 10, 2012
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Developed by a Task Force (as required by the state
Senate Enrolled Act No. 369)
Suggested Model Ordinance
◦ Development of a “Water Management Strategy”
by Local Unit of Government
◦ Adoption and Implementation of Ordinance for
Effective Management of Water during Temporary
Water Shortage
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Development of Water Shortage Plan Web Page,
www.in.gov/2423.htm
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Increase public awareness of value of water
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Increase public knowledge of wise water use
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Provide economic incentives for desirable water
management practices
Enhance sum of net benefits from water resources
Reduce frequency, duration, and severity of water
shortages
Provide economic development consistent with
water supply outlook
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Ecological protection is understood to be one of
the recognized “beneficial uses” of water in the
State.
Therefore, the Water Shortage Task Force
recommends that the 80-Percent Flow Duration
(Q80) stream discharge for the months of May
through October be used as a trigger to initiate a
local action process to protect aquatic and riparian
habitat by monitoring minimum streamflow in
surface waters during a shortage.
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First Priority is for domestic purposes described in
IC 14-25-1-3
Second Priority is for the use of health and safety
Third Priority is for power production with
contingency planning provisions
Fourth Priority is for industry and agriculture with
contingency planning provisions
Fifth Priority is for power production, industry and
agriculture without contingency planning
provisions
Sixth Priority is for any other purpose
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Encourage the Legislature to establish a
sustainable Water Planning Task Force to
coordinate regional water supply and demand
planning, and data collection efforts
Improve regional water conservation,
allocation and management throughout
Indiana
Protect public health and safety during water
shortages
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Implement policies and programs that encourage
efficient use, including conservation of water in
wet, normal, and dry years, and allocation during
water shortage
Study the supply and demand by establishing water
use databanks that are standardized and shared
through metering and reporting requirements
Promote installation of accurate water metering
devices at all withdrawal and/or end use points
July 17, 2012
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To: Owners/Operators of Significant Water
Withdrawal Facilities
Applicable to all counties in Indiana
Issued by the Indiana Department of Natural
Resources and the Indiana Department of
Homeland Security
Requested a voluntary reduction of current
water use of 10-15%
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Center-pivot sprinklers are commonly used in
the High Plains
Large quantities of groundwater pumped from
the Ogallala Aquifer allows these semiarid
western lands to yield abundant harvests
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Water is being extracted 100 times the
natural replacement rate (recharge)
Water level in the aquifer dropping at the rate
of five feet per year
Eight states draw water
from the aquifer:
• Colorado
• Kansas
• Nebraska
• New Mexico
• Oklahoma
• South Dakota
• Texas
• Wyoming
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The High Plains Underground Water Conservation
District says that agriculture producers are drawing
water from the Ogallala Aquifer at unsustainable
rates
They predict that the aquifer will dry up within the
next 30 years
Cotton producers said the Conservation District is
using its report to justify regulations to restrict
groundwater and aquifer usage
Ag producers said the report has been manipulated
to take control of the resource, not to conserve it
• Many major aquifers have reduced yields due to
over-pumping
• Over-pumping also causes significant ground
water quality issues
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In 2004, Americans, on average, drank 24 gallons
of bottled water
Consumption of bottled water is growing more
quickly than that of soft drinks and has more than
doubled in the past decade
This year, Americans will spend around $9.8 billion
on bottled water, according to the Beverage
Marketing Corporation.
Ounce for ounce, it costs more than gasoline
Bottled water costs 250 to 10,000 times more than
tap water. Globally, bottled water is now a $46
billion industry
Why has bottled water become so popular?
“Companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi, with their
Dasani and Aquafina bottled water products,
spend millions of dollars on ads that depict fresh
mountain springs and nature... when in fact both
of these, like many other leading brands, use
municipally treated tap water as the source.”
--National Resources Defense Council
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EPA – Environmental Protection Agency
Information available
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Name
Other counties sharing this watershed
Watersheds upstream
Watersheds downstream
Stream flow information
Impaired waters
Website: http://cfpub.epa.gov/surf/locate/
Surf Your Watershed
 Read the general instructions
 Complete the assignment
 Due: Wednesday, Aug. 28