Water Coverage and Aquifers
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Questions and Answers

What percentage of the Earth's surface is covered with water?

  • 90%
  • 60%
  • 71% (correct)
  • 80%

    • What is the approximate percentage of freshwater that is frozen?

  • 80% (correct)
  • 70%
  • 50%
  • 60%

    • What is a characteristic of brackish aquifers?

  • They are only found in Texas.
  • They are entirely composed of freshwater.
  • They have a Total Dissolved Solids of 1,000 to 10,000 parts per million. (correct)
  • They have a Total Dissolved Solids of 10-100 parts per million.

    • What is the primary administration body for surface water rights in Texas?

    <p>Texas Commission on Environmental Quality</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the basis for the permit system for surface water rights in Texas?

    <p>Prior Appropriations Doctrine</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What percentage of total water use in Texas comes from groundwater?

    <p>55%</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the total amount of acre-feet of groundwater in Texas?

    <p>1,590,820</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the foundational doctrine related to groundwater in Texas?

    <p>Rule of Capture</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the purpose of Groundwater Conservation Districts?

    <p>To protect property rights and balance conservation and development of groundwater</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the name of the treaty that governs surface water in Texas and Mexico?

    <p>Rio Grande Treaty of 1944</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a watershed?

    <p>A land area that drains water to a particular stream, river, or lake</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the unit of measurement for the rate of water flow?

    <p>Cubic Feet per Second</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is consumptive use in water supply?

    <p>Water withdrawn that is evaporated, transpired by plants, incorporated into products or crops, consumed by humans or livestock</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is turbidity in water?

    <p>The amount of solid particles suspended in water that cause light rays to scatter</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the name of the disease caused by drinking water that is not filtered or chlorinated?

    <p>Giardiasis</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the maximum amount of a contaminant that can be present in drinking water without causing a risk to human health?

    <p>Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary purpose of desalination?

    <p>To convert saline water into freshwater</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the process of removing salt molecules from water through a semi-permeable membrane?

    <p>Reverse osmosis</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a challenge associated with desalination?

    <p>Disposing of brine water</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the study of the occurrence and movement of water on and beneath the surface of the Earth?

    <p>Hydrology</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What drives the hydrologic cycle?

    <p>Solar radiative energy</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the capacity of the largest inland municipal desalination plant in the world, located in El Paso, Texas?

    <p>27.5 MGD</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a method of desalination that involves boiling water to produce steam?

    <p>Distillation</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary benefit of desalination?

    <p>Providing freshwater for human consumption</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary source of the City of Houston's water supply?

    <p>Surface water</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What percentage of Perth, Australia's freshwater comes from desalination?

    <p>45%</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the rating of the City of Houston's drinking water system?

    <p>Superior</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main purpose of a watershed?

    <p>To determine the area that contributes water to a stream</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the surface trace of the boundary that delimits a watershed?

    <p>Divide</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a negative impact of desalination on the environment?

    <p>Harming marine life through surface water intakes</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How many million people are served by the City of Houston's drinking water system?

    <p>2.2</p> Signup and view all the answers

    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?

    <p>Houston Public Works</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the classification system for stream networks developed by Strahler?

    <p>Stream order system</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the inflow of water to a groundwater reservoir from the surface?

    <p>Groundwater recharge</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main impact of climate change on hydrology?

    <p>More frequent extreme weather events</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the purpose of riparian water rights?

    <p>To allow landowners to use water from adjacent streams</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the name of the process that transfers water vapor from the Earth's surface into the atmosphere?

    <p>Evapotranspiration</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the result of urbanization on water management?

    <p>Conversion of rural farmland to impervious surface</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the percentage of the City of Houston's water supply that comes from surface water sources?

    <p>86%</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the purpose of the Vista Ridge Project?

    <p>To transfer water from one basin to another</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for water that flows or seeps downward and saturates soil or rock, supplying springs and wells?

    <p>Groundwater</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How much water is treated daily by the City of Houston's drinking water system?

    <p>449 million gallons</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the effect of subsidence on water management?

    <p>Sinking of the ground due to underground material movement</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the purpose of desalination?

    <p>To remove salts and minerals from brackish water</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the name of the lake that the City of Houston owns 100% shares of?

    <p>Lake Houston</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a characteristic of artesian wells?

    <p>They are under pressure and can flow above ground level</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How many feet of water column are equivalent to 100 psi?

    <p>231 feet</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the purpose of irrigation in agriculture?

    <p>To increase production and grow food in dry areas</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the unit of measurement for irrigation?

    <p>Inches or mm</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How many gallons of water are equivalent to 1 acre-inch?

    <p>27,541 gallons</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the average water requirement for Sports Turf Grass?

    <p>34 inches</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the most common method of irrigation worldwide?

    <p>Flood irrigation</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a characteristic of drip irrigation?

    <p>Low pressure and low flow rate</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is required in drip irrigation?

    <p>Filtration</p> Signup and view all the answers

    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.

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