Pootatuck Stream Assessment

TEMJ 19824 - Water Is Life. Watershed, HVA, PWA, Streamwalk

Water Is Life

Water is life for many species on the planet, including humans. Humans have just three days to live, without water, before our bodies start to shut down, cease functioning and begin to retire. Yet we all take water for granted. Many of us simply overlook, and take for granted the importance of clean potable water in our daily lives. Historically, we have abused many of our water resources here in the northeast.

Many of us think of water as a limitless resources. We turn on our water tap and we expect clean water to come pouring out. We water our lawns, wash our cars and shower with gallons of water every day.

Each American uses an average of 82 gallons of water per day. The average person uses almost 3,000 gallons a month. Most of us will agree that we squander water and we could use much less if we were more thoughtful about water. The reality is clean water is not limitless. 

What Is A Watershed

The EPA defines a watershed as a land area that drains into a common basin. A common basin might be a brook, creek, stream, river, pond, lake, wetland, estuary or ocean. Water not only runs across the surface of land, it also drains and gets filtered through the ground into water aquifers. These aquifers are replenished by the water flowing across the surface of the land mass above.

Therefor water conservation is one of the most important efforts our local, state and federal officials should be considering. Let us all work together to find ways to use water more efficiently in order to reduce water usage. In the next section, let’s begin by looking at an example of water mis-use.