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Watersheds and Polluted Runoff. The Water Cycle. Saturation/ Condensation. Evaporation/ Transpiration. Precipitation. Percolation/Run off. Water: The Ultimate Recycling Process. The same water that the dinosaurs drank is what we use today. What is a watershed?.
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The Water Cycle Saturation/ Condensation Evaporation/ Transpiration Precipitation Percolation/Run off
Water: The Ultimate Recycling Process The same water that the dinosaurs drank is what we use today.
What is a watershed? • A watershed is the region of land which collects water that eventually drains into a lake, river, or the ground water. • Anywhere that you stand on the ground, you are in a watershed. • You are never outside of a watershed, you just cross from one boundary to the next.
Your Watershed We insert a GIS map of all of the surrounding watersheds of the school being presented to, and have a flag inserted at the schools location.
What is Polluted Runoff? • Caused by rain and flood water washing over our nations landscapes, picking up dirt, oil, fertilizer, pesticides, animal waste and other substances • Substances are then deposited into our rivers, lakes, bays, coastal waters, ground water, and even drinking water supplies. • 88% of the impairment of our streams and rivers are caused by polluted runoff.
What is urban runoff? • Is the third largest source of water quality impairments to surveyed rivers • Nonporous surfaces like roads, bridges, parking lots, and buildings are a huge part of the problem – cause flooding • Attract large amounts of traffic on roadways • Great deal of waste created • A single city block creates 9X more waste than an area of the same size outside the city. Independence Mall
What can we do to prevent Polluted Runoff? • Conserve water – inside and out • Do not fertilize your lawn before a rain storm or over-fertilize it so that the excess runs off into the streets • Take your car to a car wash where the water is treated and recycled. • Do not pour anything down your storm drain • Look for alternative forms of transportation, i.e.car pool, public transportation, bike, etc.
What can we do to prevent Polluted Runoff? • Clean up after your pets • Smart waste disposal, i.e. recycling, using proper receptacles to dispose of waste and hazardous waste, i.e. car batteries, solvents, pesticides, etc. • Become involved, join your local watershed group or volunteer monitoring organization • Get informed, learn all you can about your local watershed and about NPS pollution, with knowledge, we can make a difference
The End Presentation created by AmeriCorps VISTAs Eva Murphy and Marissa Pappas