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39 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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About how much of the fresh water on the planet is available to us?
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less than 1%
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Where is much of the inaccessible freshwater on the planet?
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at the poles
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What do salt lakes not have that makes them salty?
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They don't have an outflow.
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What is green water?
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Water that passes through plants
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What is blue water?
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Water from rain, groundwater, evaporation
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What name is given to the area that collects the water for a region of land?
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watershed
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What is a "watershed" definitely "not"?
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A little shed with a water tank in it
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The name of the place in the ground where the groundwater is located is called the ....
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aquifer
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Examples of surface water would be.....
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lakes, rivers, creeks, mud puddles
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Can you use an ordinary paper or sand filter to remove salt from seawater?
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No. The salt is in solution, and thus the particles are too small to filter.
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Can you use a fine membrane, such as dialysis tubing, to remove salt from seawater?
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Yes. The process is called reverse osmosis
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Why are reverse osmosis, distillation, and freezing of seawater not really good ways of obtaining freshwater?
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They are expensive because they require a lot of energy.
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The downward movement of water through the soil is called....
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percolation or infiltration
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When the water table drops, what happens to the flow rate of creeks and other streams?
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It slows
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When we foolishly dump oil and solvents on the ground, where does it go?
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Into the groundwater and eventually into the nearest well.
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The number one use of water by humans is for....
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agriculture (irrigation)
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The number two use of water by humans is for
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industry & electrical production
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Humans in the US directly use about ____ gallons of water per day per person.
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100
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Land sinking or _______ is caused in areas where too much groundwater is removed. Abrupt versions of this are called sinkholes.
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subsidence
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After 1995, all toilets in our country were required to flush no more than ______ gallons per flush.
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1.6 gallons
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What's the most conservative, but perhaps the most expensive way to irrigate crops?
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drip irrigation
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Use of landscaping that utilizes plants that are not "thirsty" is called....
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xeriscaping
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What's the key to making our finite, but renewable water supply go further?
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Conservation
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The "high water" mark for groundwater is called the ___ _____
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water table
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Groundwater moves so slowly and is so slow to recharge it is considered a ____ resource.
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non-renewable
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A flood is nature's way of recharging a field with ____ and the aquifer with ____.
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nutrients
water |
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Where does the majority of our freshwater in the United States come from?
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groundwater (53%)
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Why don't we add just chlorine to water for disinfection anymore?
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It reacts with organic matter to produce THM's (trihalomethanes)
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What effect do dams have on estuaries way downstream?
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Causes their salinity to rise, affecting the life in the ecosystem
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When salt water gets into the groundwater and into our wells at the coast, it is called .....
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saltwater intrustion
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What law requires us to treat water in this country?
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The Safe Drinking Water Act
(SDWA) |
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Water that has only been "gently" used in your home -- clothes washing, sinks, showers, tubs -- can be used to flush toilets. We call it...
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gray water
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Water that has human waste in it is called....
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sewage or waste water
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Using gray water for toilets might be expensive because it would require ___ sets of pipes to each bathroom.
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2
(an input & output for freshwater and an input and output for gray water) |
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When we on "borrow" water, use it, and then put it back where we got it, it's called a ______ use.
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Non-consumptive
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We we pour water on the ground and thus will never see it again, we call that a ____ use.
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Consumptive (which is what happens in agriculture)
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If the calcium ion in water is high, then the water is said to be ___.
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hard
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When water is "hard", then how well does soap wash off in such water?
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very easily.... to the extent that the soap globs up and may even cling to you.
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Why is water with a little hardness a good thing?
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Citizens don't use so much water bathing
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