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Hawaii Is Facing A Crisis? Essay

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Hawaii is facing a crisis. This is not one of wars, disease or famine; the issue is water. Located thousands of miles away from the other continents, many resources in Hawaii are scarce. As a result, Hawaii’s water supply is suffering because of the an ever changing climate, which results in stress on our valuable water. To first address the issue of water resources in Hawaii, one must know what Hawaii’s main source of water is, and how it works. Groundwater is the main source of water in the state Hawaii as it covers drinking, irrigation, domestic, commercial, and industrial needs. Groundwater is water that is present underground in soil and rocks that supplies water to underground aquifers and wells. Water located underground exists in two zones, called the unsaturated zone and saturated zone. The unsaturated zone contains spaces where air and water resides, which is separated by the water table. The saturated zone refers to the area below the water table where most of the freshwater exists. The water found in the saturated zone makes up the groundwater which supplies Hawaii with most of its groundwater. “Ground water provides about 99 percent of Hawaii’s domestic water and about 50 percent of all freshwater used in the State” (Gingerich and Delwyn). This was taken from a study from 1995, and the statistics have not changed much, but the overall use of water from then until now has decreased slightly. Some speculate that it is because that many plantations have

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