Water Specialist Nuggets
By Kelly
Wells
Provide water for drinking, irrigation, and industry
The three types of wells are dug well, driven well, and drilled well.
Drilled wells are most modern and can be drilled more than 1,000 feet deep.
A pump is used in the bottom of the well to push water up.
An aquifer supplies the underground water for wells.
The underground water level can go up or down depending on precipitation and how fast water is being pumped out of the ground.
Watershed
The area of land that drains all of the water to the same point is called a watershed.
A watershed is also called a drainage basin or catchment.
Ridges and hills, called drainage divides, separate two watersheds.
Watersheds consist of surface waters and the underlying groundwater.
Outflow point is the place where all the water drains out from the watershed.
Watersheds are important because the stream flow and water quality depends on what goes on in the watershed.
Things that affect the amount of water flow out of a watershed are precipitation, infiltration, evaporation, transpiration, storage, and water use by people.
Water Quality
Water’s quality tells us how clean or safe surface or groundwater is to drink or swim in.
To test for quality, specialists sample the chemicals in the water, sediment, and fish.
They test for levels of oxygen, nutrients, metals, oils, and pesticides, also temperature and flow.
Water quality may be checked at fixed sites, random sites, or on an emergency basis.
The five reasons for monitoring water quality are:
- To check for changes in water quality over time.
- To identify problems with water quality.
- To help with pollution prevention.
- To see if goals or regulations are being met.
- To respond to emergencies.
Federal agencies, state pollution control agencies, local governments, and private organizations all help to monitor water quality.
Water Pollution
Water is polluted if it is unfit for its intended use because of material added to the water.
Point Source Pollution – pollution that is put directly into the water from treatment plants or industry. This is easier to control.
Non-Point Source Pollution - pollution that enters water indirectly such as from runoff. Not as easy to control. The majority of water pollution comes from non-point sources such as farms.
Types of pollutions include:
Agriculture - fertilizers and pesticides, silt and sediment from erosion,
Municipal - water pollution from homes and treatment plants, pathogens from untreated sewage.
Industrial - pollution of chemicals and petroleum products.
Ground Water
Found under surface almost everywhere; hills, mountains, plains, and deserts.
Depending on how deep, ground water could be a couple hours to thousands of years old.
Only found within a few miles of earth’s surface where there are spaces between the rock particles.
Ground water comes from precipitation that seeps into the ground. It moves slowly at an angle downward due to gravity.
The groundwater may end up seeping into streams, lakes, and rivers.
Saturated – can not hold any more water, all spaces between rock particles are full
Water table – the level below which the ground is saturated.
Rocks are laid down in layers, spaces between layers, some rock types are porous, and limestone dissolves forming cavities.
Aquifer – readily available ground water
Surface Water
Surface water is precipitation that does not soak into the ground but becomes runoff that flows into rivers and lakes and eventually to the ocean.
Rivers, streams, and creeks are surface waters flowing downhill due to gravity. Ground water can also seep into rivers.
Lakes form where land rises on all sides pooling the water.
Glaciers are frozen rivers of ice flowing downhill.
Glaciers and ice caps store about 75% of world’s fresh water
Water Treatment
Water treatment plants clean water for drinking or before returning soiled water back to the environment.
Groundwater needs less treatment than surface water.
Water treatment systems clean water through:
Coagulation – removing dirt by use of metal particles
Sedimentation – allows heavy particles to settle out
Filtration – removes even smaller particles by passing water through layers of sand, gravel, and charcoal.
Disinfection – chlorine is added to kill bacteria and other microorganisms.
Storage – water closed in a tank or reservoir to allow disinfection to occur.