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Effects of groundwater pollution
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We realize that extracting from groundwater has advantages as well as disadvantage, in order to provide advantages and disadvantages we first need to know what the meaning of groundwater. Groundwater which is known as aquifer is water that satiates the crevices and openings of rocks and residues that is positioned below the surface of the ground. A mask amount of the groundwater is protected because it is underground, therefore leaving it purely clean and exempt from the pollution on the earth. Now that the significance of groundwater has been stated, the advantages and disadvantages of extracting from it can be summarized (Kreifels, 2011).
There are several advantages of extracting groundwater such as it is good drinking water and beneficial for irrigation; it is use all year; it can be found anywhere; it can be renewable as long as it is not contaminated or over used and it is cost effective compared to most surface waters and water is not lost because of evaporation. The disadvantages are the cost is greater and there is impurity from deeper well; water streams are condensed into surface water; the imposition of saltwater mixing into drinking water distributes close to coastal regions; for years aquifers polluted groundwater; land is descending because groundwater is being over pumped and depletion of aquifer because of over withdrawing (Miller & Johnson, 2010).
Groundwater depletion is a problem in the US and the world because water is being extracted from groundwater as fast as they can replenish them. One reason in particular why depletion occur in the US is that the population has increased and is steadily growing, which causes groundwater to be over pumped. Some levels in the groundwat...
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...able amount of energy to keep the pump flowing. The third drawback of desalination is that a massive amount of salty wastewater is accumulated and must therefore for a place to reside. If the salty wastewater is dumped into coastal oceans, it could cause harm to the sea life as well as compromise food resources. Disposing it on the land is not an option either because the groundwater and surface water could become polluted (Miller & Johnson, 2010).
Reference
Kreifels, C. (fall, 2011). Keeping it clean together. Volume 26. Number 2. The Aquifer:
A publication of groundwater foundation.
Miller, T.G., & Spoolman, S.E. (2010). Environmental science. (13th Ed). Belmont, CA:
Cengage Learning.
Terrell, B.L & Johnson, P.N. (1999). Economic impact of the depletion of Ogallala aquifer:
A case study of the southern high plains of Texas.
How is development creating longer term problems for groundwater storage ? Cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas are built in the desert. This whole process relies on water from two sources: 1. River water pumped from the Colorado system 2. Groundwater held in aquifers below ground.
Many have always questioned if bottled water or tap water is better for themselves and the environment. Bottled water has many conveniences and is needed, or even wanted, by many people in the United States and all over the world. Water bottles is just not a want for some, it is a necessity. This essay will convince you of the reasons why bottled water is superior to tap water. Not only will you find out why it is superior but why it is important to always have bottled water available to everyone.
The Ogallala Aquifer was found in 1889. Since then, 170,000 wells have been made, just in SW Kansas. If we stop pumping right now it will take hundreds of years to refill. If we use it until it is completely dry, it will take 6,000 years to naturally refill. One of the main reasons the aquifer is drying up so fast is center pivot irrigation, which is used by a lot of farmers in SW Kansas. 50% of the water brought up through the wells to water crops is wasted. Water is being pumped out much faster than the Ogallala Aquifer can replenish, therefore dropping the water levels in the aquifer severely.
Desalination plants overall could be a huge benefit to society for its high quality of water and intuitive water treatment techniques, however the big environmental impacts and high costs to produce water at a desalination plant makes it unfavorable to most communities especially the poorer communities. Although costs for the production and upkeep for a desalination plant has been going down while the technology of it rises, the only true benefit for having a desalination plant would only come into affect when it is near a body of ocean, such as Tampa Bay Water. All in all desalination plants could soon be the face of future water treatment plants and water sources, but for the present time it is still only a niche water source.
Over the past fifty years, the U.S. population has doubled in size. During this time, total water usage per person has almost tripled. Since the end of World War II, there has been a steady increase of people moving out of rural areas and into cities. As a result, the domestic self-supplied population has greatly decreased and the need for public-water supply systems has intensified. These factors, in conjunction with certain economic trends, precipitation, and global climate changes, pose difficult challenges in the years to come.
to increase rapidly, particularly in countries where clean potable tap water is available at very
Presently, in the USA the California state is starting suffer with water crises. Therefore, the state started planning many desalination plants. There are three current desalination station, and the government is planning more fifteen. Figure 9 shows the desalinations plants in the California state. There are many critics about the desalinization plants.20 Arguments use against the plants are which use huge amounts of energy, and is very danger for the marine life.20 Desalinated water construction costs approximately $2,000 an acre foot.20 In addition, to produce one gallon of drinking water need two gallons of seawater.20 This process consumes about 38 megawatts to remove 100 million gallons of seawater per day.20
Mercer, Dave. "Desal Or Not To Desal? The Desalination Debate In Australia." Geodate 21.2 (2008): 5-7. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
Today, water usage is very high. One of the main reasons has been due to an increase in population. Human population is today on the rise. According to the CIA (2015), the birth rate of the human population stands at 1.86%. In the last 100 years, there has been tremendous growth in human population due to advances in medical technology as well as improvement in agriculture. This has led to an increase in water use over the years. In addition, the increase in industries over this period has also led to an increase in water use. Today, there are numerous industries that have come up, each requiring huge amounts of water to run smoothly. The increase in water usage today is partially responsible for the global water crisis. The huge demand for water means that there is less water available for each person and each industry.
In our generation of new technologies and high civilization it is hard to believe that our World is in Water crisis. This crisis is affecting not only low-developed parts of the world but also it affects high-developed countries, about one third of the humanity suffers from the scarcity of water (Molden 2010). One of the main causes of it is overpopulation. In increasing water demand water sources which we have now are not able to renew themselves. Another factor of water scarcity is not economized water consumption. Nowadays most of countries are beginning to realize that solving the problem of scarcity of water is very crucial. One of them is Mexico where water shortage is the national problem.
Groundwater remained the main supply until 1971 which was when Las Vegas became more dependent on Colorado River water due to the “Southern Nevada Water System” (Brown, n.d.; Larsen et al., 2015). Since then up to 90,000 acre-feet of groundwater has been pumped on a yearly basis, this value surpasses the natural groundwater recharge (Laczniak et al., n.d.). Rain as well as snow serves as the primary sources of groundwater recharge for the aquifers while precipitation plays a minor role (Laczniak et al., n.d.). Due to there not being balanced discharge and recharge this has led to subsidence and as a result of this subsidence the storage capacity of aquifers has decreased due to compaction (Laczniak et al., n.d.). It is estimated that 187,000 acre feet of storage capacity in the aquifers has been lost due to compaction (Laczniak et
For Shiva, the roots of her argument come from a conflict over two different ideological beliefs. One sees water as a common resource that should be freely available and conscientiously conserved; the other sees water as a market good to be possessed, bought and sold. The market proponents argue that the water crisis can be alleviated by privatizing water: places with more water can sell to places with less water and the higher prices will lead to conservation even though those who control the water.
Before delving in to what is actually wrong with seawater desalination plants, it is important to establish that there are plenty of alternatives available. One of the best alternatives is to adopt more efficient practices, such as conservation of water, and recycling storm water and grey water (from washing machines and bathrooms...
Many people around the world need water. Around 780 million people are unable to get clean water (One Billion Affected). People who do have access to clean water in their homes, have to pay a fee. The people who struggle to live obviously do not have enough money to buy water. People who are unable to have clean water have a good chance of dying either from disease or from dehydration. At least 3.4 million people die a year from water problems such as sanitation (One Billion Affected).
Chemicals and impurities removed from water may not be disposed properly thus polluting the environment. A sheet volume of discarded filters may add up to landfill mass. The system itself may take up large amount of spaces and cause lots of noises and destructions. There may also be chemical or wastewater spills if not handled properly.