Many people don?t trust the water that comes out of their taps, so they decide it will be safer if they only drink bottled water, instead. Unfortunately, many people don?t realize that bottled water is not that great for the environment, and may not be healthy for you, either. Sure, plastic can be recycled, but within that plastic is a little chemical called bisphenol A (BPA), that leaches out if the bottle becomes hot (as, for example, if you?re going out biking in 90 degree weather for a significant length of time).
And, the ironic thing of course is that the water in most of these bottles doesn?t come from fresh mountain streams, but from the same water supply you?re drinking from. (Of course, it probably isn?t being siphoned through decades-old pipes and picking up contaminants that way, which is what bottled water drinkers are worried about when it comes to their tap water.)
The solution is to simply install a purifier on your tap, or your refrigerator, should it have that function. (Indeed, fridges that have receptacles for getting cold water and ice without having to open the fridge door are great energy savers!)
But my question is this. Do you know, personally, from where your tap water comes? Where is your local reservoir, and how old are the pipes that serve it? Where is the aquifer (underground water) from which that reservoir water comes.
As the population of the United States increases, both by births here and by immigration from abroad, more and more of our water supplier is being used up, faster than it is replenished by natural forces such as rainy days.
What is the definition of an aquifer? Lousiana?s Office of Conservation page has a thorough definition:
?An aquifer is a geologic formation that can store and transmit water to wells, springs and some streams. An aquifer is more like a sponge than an underground river: geologic materials have connected pores that allow water to move from one space to another, but unless the rock is fractured, water does not move through large, hollow tunnels at rapid rates.?
But let?s say you have a well, so you don?t even have to worry about city water at all?
Well, here?s what the definition of an aquifer has to say about wells:
?Wells can be drilled into aquifers and water can be pumped out. Precipitation adds water (this is recharge) into the porous rock of the aquifer. The rate of recharge is not the same for all aquifers, though, and that must be considered when pumping water from a well. Pumping too much water too fast draws down the water in the aquifer and might eventually cause a well to yield less water or run dry. Pumping your well too fast or too often might also cause your neighbor’s well to run dry if you both are pumping from the same aquifer. Aquifers can be quite extensive, possibly stretching for tens of miles, feeding hundreds of ground water wells and streams. This is why usage of your well can influence other people miles away.?
It behooves you, therefore, to keep up-to-date as to how water is managed in your locality.
