Water Conservation and Management

1. Water Conservation and Management

2. Today’s Lecture • Water pollution legislation • Increasing water supplies • Watershed management

3. Water Pollution Legislation Do you think that different waters should be treated differently? • Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) of 1972 • Why was this needed? In the 1950s and 1960s: • Potomac river too dirty to swim in • Cuyahoga River lit on fire • Lake Erie declared dead because of no deep oxygen • Surface waters are classified by their designated uses • Drinking water, swimming and fishing, transportation and agriculture

4. Water Pollution Legislation • Minimal water-quality standards established • In 1977 FWPCA is amended and becomes the Clean Water Act • All municipalities must have secondary sewage treatment plants by 1988 (1987 amendment) • USGS monitors the water, and determined that water quality hadn’t improved, and had possibly declined from 1991-1995. • Lead to an increase in attempts at controlling nonpoint water pollution.

5. Water Pollution Legislation What is happening in this picture? • Safe Drinking Water Act (1974) • Protects the equality of drinking water • EPA is main regulator of drinking water quality • Website with EPA’s drinking water contaminants

6. Increasing Water Supplies • Conservation • Reclamation of sewage water • Development of groundwater • Desalination of seawater • Rainmaking • Diversion of surface water to areas in need • Changes in crops that are engineered to handle more saline water , or just less water

7. Increasing Water Supplies • Conservation • On the farm • 40% of water is used for irrigation (USGS: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/wuir.html) • Reducing seepage losses • Water in irrigation ditches seeps out, also evaporates out • Increasing drip irrigation • Less water loss by evaporation, only some crops suitable • Heat and soil moisture sensors • More accurate way of determining when irrigation is necessary • In industry • Increasing water costs • Colleges and Homes • Installing water meters in every home • Reducing incentives to use excessive amounts of water • Legal barriers • Changing legislative policies that hinder conservation • First in time, first in line and use it or lose it

8. Increasing Water Supplies • Effluent water is 99% pure and 1% polluted • May be cleaner than the stream water it is being discharged into • Reclamation of sewage water • Gray water • Water from sinks, showers, baths, and washing machines • Used for irrigation of golf courses • Used in industry as coolant water • Black water • Water from toilets • Artificial wetlands created to treat this water before entering the groundwater system • Restrictions on water for irrigation of food crops

9. Increasing Water Supplies • Developing Groundwater Resources • Less sustainable • Drilling into new groundwater reservoirs will provide municipalities with ‘new’ water resources • Once they are depleted the municipality is back where it started • Some solutions are to pump water back into the groundwater system • Not completely efficient, may not all be recovered

10. Increasing Water Supplies • Desalination • ~96% of the water on Earth is saline. • This water is not potable. Humans cannot drink it and survive. • Desalination plants remove the salt from the seawater, thereby making potable water. • Inefficient and expensive • Produces waste material (brine) that must be disposed

11. Increasing Water Supplies • Salt and Drought Resistant Crops • When soils become to salty as a result of a buildup of chemicals and minerals in the soil it becomes poisonous to crops • Development of crops that can survive in this soil would increase crop lands in the U.S. and abroad • Crops that are genetically engineered to resist drought would be excellent candidates for diet staples in drought-common regions.

12. Increasing Water Supplies • Rainmaking • Seeding clouds with silver iodide or sodium chloride crystals into moist air. • The water condenses on the crystals and falls to the earth as precipitation • Unpredictable • Where it will fall • What the consequences of forcing rain are • What kind of ecological repercussions will there be?

13. Increasing Water Supplies • Transporting water to areas in need • Example: California Water Project • Most of the water falls in northern California, but most of it is needed in central and southern California. • The state implemented a $2 billion + project to transport water • Criticism • Destruction of waterways • Excessive costs • Loss of scenic beauty Figure 10.12 California Water Project. Major lakes and reservoirs are indicated by numbers. (C & R p. 238)

14. Watershed Management • Manage entire watersheds • Reduce impervious surfaces, reduce nonpoint pollution • Buffer zones • Create vegetated zones around streams and rivers to protect from sediment runoff, and from organics and heavy metals • Educational programs • Don’t wash cars on the street, don’t dump in stormdrains, pick up after pets • PROBLEMS: all talk and no action • How can we improve watershed management plans so that change is effected?

15. World View Lack of funding – both individually and governmentally Rampant warfare/feuding Lack of education in the general public Apathy Lack of availability of water resources • Water pollution is a global issue • What are problems facing less-developed nations dealing with water issues?