Protecting Fresh Water Resources Elizabeth Rodriguez Rasmussen College Author Note This assignment is being submitted on December 4th, 2011 for Gareth Buckland for G350/GEO3376 Section 03 Conservation of Resources - Fall 2011 at Rasmussen College by Elizabeth Rodriguez. Protecting Fresh Water Resources Freshwater ecosystems such as rivers and lakes provide drinking water, food, energy, transportation and even joy. But a staggering amount of fresh water is wasted or spoiled every day. Experts warn that in the next 20 years, half of the world’s population could face water shortages. There are practical solutions to freshwater conservation. These solutions ensure we meet our current needs and conserve this precious resource for …show more content…
1271 et seq.) to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free-flowing condition for the enjoyment of present and future generations. The Act is notable for safeguarding the special character of these rivers, while also recognizing the potential for their appropriate use and development. It encourages river management that crosses political boundaries and promotes public participation in developing goals for river protection [ (National Wild and Scenic Rivers, 2007) ]. Rivers may be designated by Congress or, if certain requirements are met, the Secretary of the Interior. Each river is administered by either a federal or state agency. Designated segments need not include the entire river and may include tributaries. For federally administered rivers, the designated boundaries generally average one-quarter mile on either bank in the lower 48 states and one-half mile on rivers outside national parks in Alaska in order to protect river-related values [ (National Wild and Scenic Rivers, 2007) ]. Rivers are classified as wild, scenic, or recreational. Wild river areas are those rivers or sections of rivers that are free of impoundments and generally inaccessible except by trail, with watersheds or shorelines essentially primitive and waters unpolluted. These represent vestiges of primitive America. Scenic river areas are those rivers or sections of rivers that are free of impoundments, with
In the ¨River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkling of Hope¨, Ron Jacobsma, general manager of the Friant Water Authority, said “We hope to get double duty out of that water by taking it the long way around.¨ As Jacobsma is a general manager of the Friant water Authority, this offers us his experience, his ideas and his thoughts of how we can have hope for the project. President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Bill in March, the agreement turned into federal law when he signed it. The parties had been working on the restoration plan for more than two years laying the groundwork for the physical changes to come. When the president signed it, it made them get the approval which he supported for them to continue the process. The credibility of the author right has now been believable because he provided us with the ethics of President Obama and Jacobsma. The river will not necessarily end up to its full, natural path along its entire length. Too much has changed in the decades since the dams construction. They would use canals along some stretches to carry the water short distances and to ferry the salmon upstream. This is showing us logos with facts and information it offers an explanation on how to solve one of the problems with the plan. A professor named Peter Moyole, from UC Davis also had his opinion on the project. He said “We have never done anything on this scale”, but we were willing to try it and approve of the
Around the world our water supply is depleting. Our water is becoming contaminated making it harmful for both mammals and aquatic life. Today over one billion people go without adequate water supply and every fifteen seconds a child dies of waterborne illness. Sources of water that once supplied water to millions can no longer meet the supply and demand of the water need. Scientist predict that the amount of useful water will keep depleting greatly in the years to come. In the next couple of pages it will talk about both the geological and human reasons as to why are water supply is depleting.
The Meramec Watershed has been threatened by multiple dam projects for the past two hundred years (East-West Gateway Council of Governments, 2007). However, through continued efforts by local land owners and interested parties, this river has never been dammed. In the Meramec’s more recent history, the Meramec Lake project was brought forth in the 1970s and successfully stopped in the early 1980s by grassroots efforts from local activists (East-West Gateway Council of Governments, 2007). In fact, the U.S Army Corps of Engineers were so confident the dam would get official approval, construction for the project began before the debate was over. Today, remnants of the initial construction can be seen in parks such as Meramec State Park and Meramec Spring Park, yielding to the natural ecosystems and geology that dominate the
When the Mississippi is compared to other world rivers, it ranks fourth in length (3,710 miles/5,970 km) following right behind the Yangtze Rivers (3,964 miles/6,378 km), the Amazon River (4,000 miles/6,436 km), and the Nile River (4,160 miles/6,436 km). As deposition or erosion occurs at a rivers delta, or as meanders are created or cut off, determine the reported length of a river. These things can either increase
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
The Colorado River Basin starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through 1500 miles of canyon lands and deserts of seven US states and two Mexican states to supply a collection of dams and reservoirs with water to help irrigate cropland, support 40 million people, and provide hydroelectric power for the inland western United States [1,2]. From early settlement, rights over the river have been debated and reassigned to different states in the upper and lower basin; however, all the distribution patterns lead to excessive consumption of the resource. In 1922, the seven US states signed into the Colorado River Compact, which outlined the policy for the distribution rights to the water [3], however, this compact was written during an exceptionally
In fact, there was an Act passed by the Senate and the House in Congress specifically for this purpose. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act protects river such as the Tamassee River in the book and the river that it is based off of in North Carolina known as the Chatooga River. In section 1 (b) of this act it states “It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States that certain selected rivers of the Nation which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural, or other similar values, shall be preserved in free-flowing condition, and that they and their immediate environments shall be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.” Along with that, not only can rivers be used for the enjoyment of future generations but protection of nature also leads to the protection of natural resources so they’re available for them. On the next page there is a chart by the U.S. Census Bureau that shows the incline of population up to the current year and the projected expansion to the year 2050. According to this data the future population that our generation now should be preparing for
The Colorado River Basin is also home to a range of habitats and ecosystems from mountain to desert to
The EPA’s interpretation and expansion of the term “navigable waters” has created great controversy. The Environmental Protection Agency along with the United States Army Corps of Engineers have broadened the definition of “navigable waters”
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
A river is the same way you can force it to irrigate your crops by creating irrigation canals. Also, they can be used for fishing and ships can trade goods over the water also. When Machiavelli wrote that rivers and men can’t be trusted I also agree with this too, because a man naturally will have a harder time keeping a secret because there is that thrill that only certain people know and they want to be the one to gossip about it. In a different way rivers can’t be trusted because rivers flood unpredictably (unless that river is the Nile) and when it floods it spreads havoc throughout the
Prior to settlement of the western United States, the Colorado River roamed free. Starting from cool mountain streams, the river eventually became a thunderous, silty force of nature as it entered the canyons along its path. The river nourished wetlands and other riparian habitats from the headwaters in the Rocky Mountains to the delta at the Sea of Cortez in Northwest Mexico. Settlers along the river harnessed these waters mainly for agriculture via irrigation canals, but flooding from spring runoff wreaked havoc on agricultural land, prevented development in the floodplain and full utilization of the water, a waste in the eyes of western farmers. In order to meet current and future water demands in the west, the Federal Government
Along this journey created by nature, the river interacts with man’s influence to encapsulate the full geographic experience of this region. The succession of dams along the river’s path is a major contribution to how man has decided to mesh with the river. The dams have created reservoirs for water supplies, harnessed energy to provide electric power to the southwestern region, and controlled flooding. Flood control was the main concern at the time between the years 1905 and 1907 when large floods broke through the irrigation gates and destroyed crops in California. The flooding was so large it actually created a 450 square mile sea, named the Salton Sea. As a result of this major disaster, ideas were formulated to
The amount of a natural resource that a region or deposit has is classified either as a reserve or as a resource. Reserves of natural resources are the volume of natural resource that is economically and commercially exploitable with available technology. Resources are the total volume of natural resources present in the system or region, but may not be exploitable with current technology or economic evaluations. Resources may turn into reserves and reserves may turn into resources, dependent upon current market prices. (Owen, Inderwildi & King, 2010).
This project focuses on water resources in the region of ancient Eastern Arabia at the site of As Safah, Oman. This site has archaeological evidence of metallurgical activities in the Iron Age (c. 900-600 BCE), like kilns, furnaces and metal objects, still in very good condition. However, the site is very far away from any natural water sources in the present day. Excavators did find sediment and fluvial deposits suggesting that occasionally in the past the site had an inflow of water (Genchi, Giardino, and Castelluccia 8). The objective of this project was to use satellite imagery to understand why this site was chosen for intensive metal production despite it distance from water, necessary for metal production. This