Final Draft (WATER)
Hannah Coursen
English
Paper 3
05-06-08
Water, Water, Water
Water, in some form (ice,water or vapor) has been around since the beginning of the earth–we are the blue planet! Without water, nothing could have or will continue to survive. Water sustains all life on this planet. We need it for drinking, agriculture, commerce, recreation, industry, mining, oil and gas extraction, even for hydroelectric energy. Amazingly, only 2% of the water on this planet is usable and yet we have not run out. But water availability and water sustainability has become a heated debate in the world over the last century. We can no longer afford to waste water. We must implement water conservation measures in every way we utilize this resource in order to assure that it will be available for our future and our children’s future.
Water has a very historic past in shaping the world we know today. By bringing water into our homes families have improved their sanitary and living conditions. It has also driven the Industrial Revolution. According to “Industrial Revolution” by Joseph Montagna, “Advances in agricultural techniques and practices resulted in an increased supply of food and raw materials”…(Pg. 1) With the advancement of irrigation systems small farms became huge agricultural farms. However, one of the biggest problems with the history of water usage is that people never thought about conserving it. No one realized that eventually it would run out. Now that our population is growing we need to think about different ways to conserve it. For example, “the population in 18 western states has grown 7 fold from 11.2 to 77.2 million in one century”. ( Instream flow protection pg. 297)
Society and government knew that there needed to be a change in the way that we viewed water rights. Western storage projects caused a loss of instream flow which caused loss in aquatic riparian habitat, recreational opportunities, and According to “ How low will it go?” by Matt Jenkins pg(3-4) In order to address these problems they developed water rights and water compacts. Water rights grant rights to whoever first use the water. However, the Colorado river compact is a contract between seven states crafted to enable mutual coexistence. Under this compact Colorado and Utah, Wyoming, and new Mexico, reserved there share of river water, but at the same time assure that the lower basin gets there share. Water compacts were addressed so that the flow of rivers wouldn’t get so low that, people (like Native Americans) could use water as transportation. According to the Instream Flow Protection by David Gillian and Thomas Brown (Native Americans used certain areas in the rivers to fish). “ Using spears, nets, weirs, and a variety of other tools, the first Americans caught these fish where the river channel narrowed or provided other obstructions.” (Pg 9) People needed the rivers the way that they were to survive. One of the biggest resources to the western civilization was the Colorado River. The Colorado River flows through 4 states: Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and California. This river used to have a steady flow through all 4 states and ended in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, this river trickles into the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the Colorado River Channel has also narrowed. These changes to the Colorado River, led to a need for storage of water so the hoover Dam was built. This Dam now stores water in case of a drought, It provides hydro-electric power, and insures a consistent flow rate through all 4 states. It assures that by the time the river reaches the Gulf of Mexico it wont be a dry bed.
Currently people in the U.S. are realizing the desperate need to conserve our water. Agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, and United States Geological Service have helped lead efferts to conservate water and protect water quality. According to the EPA Region 8 they state that “Our Region is arid, placing a premium on the availability and quality of water resources to meet competing demands from farmers, municipalities, recreationists and ecological needs. Many rivers originate in the Rocky Mountain states including the Missouri, Rio Grande,Colorado, Arkansas and Platte Rivers; their waters are a vital source of life for people,plants and animals.” (EPA region 8) More importantly the average human can play a vital role in trying to find ways to conserve water. You can do little things like: turning off the water when you brush your teeth, or timing your showers, but you can also do big things like buying low flush toilets, low water washing machines, planting low water plants, or even recycling all the water you use in your house. In the end, what you do can really add up! In businesses that we currently have now billions of gallons of water is necessary to make these industries work. For example: boilers, furnaces, cooling towers, shell and tube heat exchanges, and breweries. Water is not only a vital resource to survive, but it also comes with all the luxury items we like to have as well.
For the future of ourselves and our kids we need to think about different long term ways to protect the remaining water that we have. If we don’t do something soon there wont be enough water to even grow the food we need to survive. In “How long will it go”, In a severe drought, in fact, cities and farms within the state could be pitted against each other in a fight for water”. (pg. 1) Hopefully sooner rather than later we can find a solution to this problem. We also need to find a solution to turn salt water into fresh water. We have so much water that can’t be used because it salt water. 96% of the earths surface is salt water. If we could figure our a way to take the salt out of the water, it seems like our water would never run out. With maybe an easier solution we could pass laws about what our water can be used for. For example: if we limit the amount of water we use for producing oil, or even the amount of water certain companies can use. We also, need to think about the climate change and how this would effect the availability of fresh water to us. An even bigger issue with climate change with water could mean more storms would be prevalent. We could eventually get bombarded with tons of hurricanes and floods. This could mean we would fear water rather then try and protect water. It would be our killer not our savior.
Hydroelectricity is also going to be a huge accomplishment to conserving and reusing our water. In USGS, “The theory is to build a dam on a large river that has a large drop in elevation (there are not many hydroelectric plants in Kansas or Florida). The dam stores lots of water behind it in the reservoir. Near the bottom of the dam wall there is the water intake. Gravity causes it to fall through the penstock inside the dam. At the end of the penstock there is a turbine propeller, which is turned by the moving water. The shaft from the turbine goes up into the generator, which produces the power. Power lines are connected to the generator that carry electricity to your home and mine. The water continues past the propeller through the tailrace into the river past the dam”… “A hydraulic turbine converts the energy of flowing water into mechanical energy. A hydroelectric generator converts this mechanical energy into electricity”. (USGS website) If we could use this theory more often we could not only reuse our water, but save the enviroment from producing more green house gases then needed.
Understanding the past of water, can hopefully protect the future of our water. Knowing different ways to conserve and reuse our water will this will not only benefit us, but our kids to come. Hopefully someday we can figure out all the mysteries of water and how big of a resource it could become. With everyone trying to protect and save our water hopefully it will still protect us rather then turn against us.
