Despite it’s abundance, water is a precious resource. Without it, life on earth would cease to exist in less than two weeks. It’s no surprise then that the Department of the Interior has seven agencies tasked in some capacity with the regulation, distribution, filtration, and preservation of clean water. 1 But in reality, while these federal agencies do serve a purpose, they are not demonstrably involved with the process of bringing clean water to households. That is the job of the states and localities. Florida, due to it’s size, shape, topography, and population centers, serves as an an excellent case study of the challenges involved in water resource management. In Florida, the legal responsibility of managing and protecting water …show more content…
The SFWMD uses machines that pump the water out of streets, and these pumps run on expensive fuel. If a major hurricane were to flood South Florida, the SFWMD, with it’s current budget, does not have the funds to remove water from the streets. The budget cuts not only have environmental consequences, but public health and economic consequences as well. These budget cuts can have additional disastrous effects for a system that is already poorly designed. Currently, excess water from Lake Okoeechobee is being dumped into the St. Lucie Canal and the Callsahatchee River, which poses environmental problems. 4 The fact that the water is being dumped at high levels is a result of the SFWMD system having been designed without the knowledge of the negative impact it would have on the estuaries. When the system was built in the 1940’s, the damage was simply unforeseeable. However, there are two factors unique to the geography of Florida that are exacerbating the need for dumping, and they both have to do with rising water levels of Lake Okeechobee. First, less water is leaving Lake Okeechobee. The creation of the Everglades Agricultural area has essentially cut off the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades, which served as a key outlet for water to flow to. 5 In addition, more water is entering Lake Okeechoee. The Kissimmee River has been channelized over the past 100
(Babbitt, 2007), (Dedekorkut 2003) Both the federal and state agencies, along the American people are dedicated to clean-up the water flows in the Everglades. With this, the Everglades Restoration, as Babbitt points-out, is an example of a national commitment to large scale restoration of degraded ecosystems (Babbitt 2007). However , currently, both the public and the political culture rely heavily on natural resource science for answers the many phenomena that exist in water resource policy.
The Everglades is an ecosystem like no other. Its survival depends on immediate actions and restoration. To begin with, CERP will act with the removal of more than 240 miles of canals and levees, greatly improving the health of the Everglades. By removing these canals and levees it will replenish 2.4 million acres with the water it needs. “The restoration of hydrologic conditions of the original natural areas of the south Florida ecosystem will result in Lake Okeechobee once again becoming a healthy lake,” (CERP: the Plan in Depth). Without the canals blocking the way and diverting the water to the coasts, the water will be able to flow back into natural areas. By having all the manmade canals deposit into one area, that area becomes infested
The State of Colorado has suffered from a water shortage in recent years; a difficult situation which is easily visible when viewing the quickly shortening length of the Colorado River. Lake Mead, for example, is roughly 130 feet lower than it once was, marked by the stained rock which towers above the current water level. “The river has become a perfect symbol of what happens when we ask too much of a limited resource: it disappears. In fact, the Colorado no longer regularly reaches the sea” (Zielinski, 2010). Legislation was implemented early on to address this issue, though the results were (perhaps not surprisingly) rather unanticipated, regarding
First and foremost, a main reason why the water supply to the everglades is having a bad effect, is because of all of the past draining. As stated in source 1 (The Florida Everglades) it says “From 1905-1910 , the settlers coverted the land… the Everglades were nearly drained entirely.” This shows that these new settlers wanted to get rid of the Everglades completely. As a result to their actions the Florida lost 50% of the wildlife’s population and diversity. This also included the subtropical wilderness of the Everglades. Which contained grassy marshes, hardwood hammocks, and mangrove forests. The draining of the Everglades was only one of the reasons why that the water supply on the park is bad.
The everglades is a place where nature is free in it’s paradise, besides the fact that there are hundreds of issues. The Everglades is home to many types of wildlife, and also provides for humans. The water supply has dramatically affected everyone, and everything, not all of it good. Water issues have affected the Everglades, and Florida by decreasing wildlife, droughts, and money issues.
Finally there was a public outcry for change. "Now that it was almost too late," wrote Marjory, "men began to realize that the water supply was never just a local problem. The Everglades were one vast unified harmonious whole in which the old subtle balance which was destroyed needed to be replaced or restored" (Bryant pg 57, 1992). A new, scientific study of the region recommended
Metro Atlanta is on a collision course with reality – and the shock of this collision will have profound political and economic implications for future growth throughout the Southeast. The core problem is that Atlanta’s runaway growth will soon outstrip the available water supply (Corps, 1998). And if Atlanta continues to increase its water consumption until the maximum limits are reached, the effects on downstream users will become catastrophic, both economically and environmentally.
For more than 50 years since the Central and Southern Florida Project, major ventures have been ongoing which have focused on the provision of fresh water for human-development projects and flood protection. In order to provide water for residential, commercial, and agricultural uses, the natural flow of hundreds of small rivers and streams contained within the Everglades were altered. Revisions included redirecting river flows from winding to straight, draining wetland areas to provide agricultural land, and channelizing rivers by creating high concrete banks to provide flood control. Consequently, the Everglades and its dependent natural community have been highly impacted in the most adverse way.
Yet, humans have limited control on natural events, so this only reinforces the importance of managing water wisely. Recently California’s government has begun to focus more on sustaining and restoring the water supply. Dale Kasler (2016) articulates in his article some of the steps they have decided to make to solve this serious issue. The government has made the following investments: “$415 million for watershed restoration and other environmental aid for Lake Tahoe; up to $335 million for two proposed reservoirs in California, including the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento; $880 million for flood-control projects on the American and Sacramento rivers in Sacramento; and $780 million for flood-control projects in West Sacramento” (para. 10). This could be the first step to restoring the water to California. But these
The Everglades Restoration Plan is the policy to increase the flow of clean water to the Everglades, in an effort to protect the environment, provide for recreational activities, and supply South Florida with a clean supply of potable water. At a cost of more than $10.5 billion and with a 35+ year time-line, this is the largest hydrologic restoration project ever undertaken in the United States. The Federal Government approved Florida’s landmark water quality project that, once constructed, all parties agree will provide the clean water the Everglades need (Scott, 2013). The Everglades restoration has been hampered by decades of futile bickering over how to decide the most rational approach to restoring the flow of water to the Everglades.
Have you ever wondered where your water comes from? If you live in Florida it comes from a place known as the Everglades. However the water supply is affecting the park located in Florida. To explain it further the park is being affected by small changes having a big impact, the water being affected and the price for saving the Everglades is high. Not to mention a approved is needed to save the subtropical wilderness.
Texas, with its abundances of natural resources, is facing a new demon, one that doesn’t even seem possible, a shortage of water. Water, without it nothing can survive. Texas is the second largest state for landmass in the nation and ninth for water square miles. Within the borders of Texas are more than 100 lakes, 14 major rivers, and 23 aquifers, so why has water become such an important issue for the state? Politicians and conservationists all agree that without a new working water plan, the state could be facing one of the most damaging environmental disasters they have ever seen. The issues that shape the states positions are population growth, current drought conditions, and who actually owns the water.
Groundwater is the largest and most available usable source of drinking water in the state. There is a vast and mysterious system of caves and natural springs in North Central Florida. The cave system within the aquifer is one of the most amazing parts. The caves are remarkable in many ways. They are among the deepest and longest in the world, let alone the U.S. Another amazing aspect of the system is the purity of the water. The springs collectively produce billions of gallons of crystal clear water per day. The whole system stems from the Florida Aquifer that rests under the entire state. When most people think of Florida, they think of the weather and the beaches, but its the springs and the whole water
In the modern age of high-speed internet, self-driving cars and VR it’s easy to forget that some places in the world still don’t have fresh water, let alone plumbing. The average person uses between 80 and 100 gallons of water a day. If you drink the recommended 8 glasses per day that’s only 8 oz a glass, or 64 oz in total. Of those 80 to 100 gallons we use an average of 3 every time we flush the toilet, 5 gallons per minute in the shower, 36 gallons for a bath, 8-27 gallons while doing the dishes, 25 gallons for every load of laundry and another 2 gallons a minute if you’re doing any outdoor watering or filling a kiddy pool. By using a newer toilet, you can reduce the gallons per flush to about 1.6 gallons, and when using a water saving shower head you can reduce your use to about 2 gallons per minute. This may not seem like much of a difference, but it can make a big impact.
Clean water supply is essential in establishing and maintaining a healthy community. There are two sources of water supply which are the surface water and ground water. Most natural waters are not suitable for consumption as it is contaminated by pathogens and also natural chemicals and minerals. In addition, as a city grew, wastes from human activities contaminate most of the water supplies. Water treatment plays an important role to properly treat a contaminated source of water supply in order to protect the health of consumers. Water treatment process is defined as a process of eliminating pollutants from untreated water to produce a biologically and chemically risk-free water, which is both potable and palatable for human consumption