Questions and Answers
What percentage of the Earth's surface is covered with water?
What is the approximate percentage of freshwater that is frozen?
What is a characteristic of brackish aquifers?
What is the primary administration body for surface water rights in Texas?
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What is the basis for the permit system for surface water rights in Texas?
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What percentage of total water use in Texas comes from groundwater?
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What is the total amount of acre-feet of groundwater in Texas?
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What is the foundational doctrine related to groundwater in Texas?
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What is the purpose of Groundwater Conservation Districts?
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What is the name of the treaty that governs surface water in Texas and Mexico?
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What is a watershed?
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What is the unit of measurement for the rate of water flow?
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What is consumptive use in water supply?
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What is turbidity in water?
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What is the name of the disease caused by drinking water that is not filtered or chlorinated?
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What is the maximum amount of a contaminant that can be present in drinking water without causing a risk to human health?
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What is the primary purpose of desalination?
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What is the process of removing salt molecules from water through a semi-permeable membrane?
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What is a challenge associated with desalination?
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What is the study of the occurrence and movement of water on and beneath the surface of the Earth?
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What drives the hydrologic cycle?
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What is the capacity of the largest inland municipal desalination plant in the world, located in El Paso, Texas?
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What is a method of desalination that involves boiling water to produce steam?
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What is the primary benefit of desalination?
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What is the primary source of the City of Houston's water supply?
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What percentage of Perth, Australia's freshwater comes from desalination?
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What is the rating of the City of Houston's drinking water system?
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What is the main purpose of a watershed?
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What is the term for the surface trace of the boundary that delimits a watershed?
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What is a negative impact of desalination on the environment?
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How many million people are served by the City of Houston's drinking water system?
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What is the name of the organization responsible for streets, drainage, producing and distributing water, collecting and treating wastewater, and permitting and regulating construction in Houston?
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What is the classification system for stream networks developed by Strahler?
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What is the term for the inflow of water to a groundwater reservoir from the surface?
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What is the main impact of climate change on hydrology?
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What is the purpose of riparian water rights?
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What is the name of the process that transfers water vapor from the Earth's surface into the atmosphere?
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What is the result of urbanization on water management?
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What is the percentage of the City of Houston's water supply that comes from surface water sources?
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What is the purpose of the Vista Ridge Project?
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What is the term for water that flows or seeps downward and saturates soil or rock, supplying springs and wells?
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How much water is treated daily by the City of Houston's drinking water system?
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What is the effect of subsidence on water management?
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What is the purpose of desalination?
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What is the name of the lake that the City of Houston owns 100% shares of?
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What is a characteristic of artesian wells?
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How many feet of water column are equivalent to 100 psi?
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What is the purpose of irrigation in agriculture?
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What is the unit of measurement for irrigation?
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How many gallons of water are equivalent to 1 acre-inch?
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What is the average water requirement for Sports Turf Grass?
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What is the most common method of irrigation worldwide?
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What is a characteristic of drip irrigation?
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What is required in drip irrigation?
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Study Notes
Water Coverage and Types
- 71% of the Earth's surface is covered with water
- 97% of the water is saltwater, and 3% is freshwater
- 80% of the freshwater is frozen, and 20% is liquid
- Examples of large water reservoirs: Toledo Bend (4.47 million acre-feet) and others (5,000 acre-feet)
Aquifers
- 9 major aquifers: underground layers of water-bearing permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials
- These aquifers provide a large amount of water over a large area
- 22 minor aquifers: provide a minor amount of water over a large area or a large amount of water over a small area
- Important source of water for rural communities
- Brackish aquifers: geologic zones within major or minor aquifers with a Total Dissolved Solids of 1,000 to 10,000 parts per million
Water Use in Texas
- Total water use in Texas: 14.17 acre-feet
- Breakdown: 55% groundwater, 42% surface water, and 3% other sources
- Largest surface water rights holders: The Dow Chemical Company, Entergy Texas, Inc., and City of Clyde
Texas Water Policy
- Surface water is owned by the state
- Prior Appropriations Doctrine and 1967 Water Rights Adjudication Act
- Permit system based on 'first in time, first in right'
- Administered through Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Groundwater in Texas
- Groundwater is owned by property owners
- Foundational Doctrine: Rule of Capture
- Considered a property right
- 'Law of the biggest pump'
- Groundwater rights can be severed and then reserved or conveyed
- Limitations to the Rule of Capture:
- Malicious taking of water to injure a neighbor
- Willful or wanton waste of groundwater
- Negligent drilling or pumping causing subsidence
- Pumping from a contaminated well
- Trespassing to pump groundwater
Groundwater Conservation Districts
- Purpose: protect property rights, balance conservation and development of groundwater
- Use the best available science in conservation and development of groundwater
- Rules developed, adopted, and promulgated by a district
National and International Boundary Waters
- Surface water governed by interstate and international treaties
- Rio Grande Treaty of 1944
Water and Watersheds
- A watershed is a land area that drains water to a particular stream, river, or lake
- It can be identified by tracing a line along the highest elevations between two areas on a map, often a ridge
- Large watersheds, like the Mississippi River basin, contain thousands of smaller watersheds
Water Supply
- Public water suppliers provide water for domestic, commercial, thermoelectric power, industrial, and public water users
- Most people's household water is delivered by a public water supplier
- The systems have at least 15 service connections or regularly serve at least 25 individuals daily for at least 60 days out of the year
Water Terminology
- CFS (Cubic Feet per Second) is a rate of water flow, equal to a volume of water one foot high and one foot wide flowing a distance of one foot in one second
- Conveyance loss is water lost in transit from a pipe, canal, or ditch by leakage or evaporation
- Drainage basin is a land area where precipitation runs off into streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs
- Consumptive use is a part of water withdrawn that is evaporated, transpired by plants, incorporated into products or crops, consumed by humans or livestock, or otherwise removed from the immediate water environment
- Evapotranspiration is the sum of evaporation and transpiration
- Tributary is a smaller river or stream that flows into a larger river or stream
- Turbidity is the amount of solid particles suspended in water that cause light rays to scatter
- Flood plain is a strip of relatively flat and normally dry land alongside a stream, river, or lake that is covered by water during a flood
- Flood stage is the elevation at which overflow of the natural banks of a stream or body of water begins
Waterborne Diseases
- Giardiasis is a disease caused by drinking water that is not filtered or chlorinated, resulting in abdominal discomfort, nausea, and alternating constipation and diarrhea
- Cryptosporidiosis is a diarrheal disease caused by the microscopic parasite Cryptosporidium, resulting in watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, dehydration, nausea, vomiting, fever, and weight loss
Water Quality Standards
- Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) is the greatest amount of a contaminant that can be present in drinking water without causing a risk to human health
- MCL is designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to water-quality standards promulgated under the Safe Drinking Water Act
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Description
Learn about the percentage of water coverage on Earth, types of water, and underground water reservoirs called aquifers. Explore the role of aquifers in providing water over large areas.