Our Fresh Water Supply

1
Our Fresh Water Supply
2
Current challenges with Fresh Water Supplies

• Drug contamination
• Invasive Species
• Pollution
• Reliability
• Rising Costs in creating new supplies
• Depleting Aquifers
• Management of supplies
• Conservation

3
Drugs (Legal and Illegal)

• Drugs have been found in our water supply.
• Our current filtration system cannot filter these
  substances out, and they enter our drinking
  water.
• We are now finding that Prozac, Ritalin,
  Adderall, Dexedrine, just to name a few, have
  made their way into our water systems.
• Both humans and animals are drinking water that
  contain these chemicals.
• Often when medicinal products are recalled (like
  the recent childrens cold and allergy
  medicines), many people just flush these
  substances down the toilet or pour them down the
  drain thereby contaminating our water supply.

4
Invasive Species

• Invasive species are polluting our water and
  robbing natural species of their habitats.
• They are clogging water pipes which transmit
  drinking water to metropolitan areas from
  man-made lakes making the transmission lines
  unusable. (Zebra Mussels)

5
Lets look at a recent story about Zebra Mussels
in Lake Texoma.

• http//www.wfaa.com/news/local/Tiny-zebra-mussels-
  pose-threat-to-Texas-lakes-93487659.html

6
Pollution

• When water is contaminated to the point that it
  is not usable, then it is considered polluted.
• Sources of pollution soil and run-off, debris
  from construction and livestock waste, brush and
  grass, fertilizers and pesticides washing into
  streams from rains or irrigation, pathogens
  caused by sewage and storm drains, mining and
  processing of radio active materials used for
  medical and other purposes, etc.

7
Reliability

• Much of the fresh water we have is based on the
  amount and distribution of rainfall. It is
  difficult to predict dependable amounts.

8
Rising Costs

• According to Water.org., over one billion people
  globally do not have access to safe water. The
  economic and health costs are astounding. Loss
  productivity is perhaps the greatest loss.

9
According to Water.org.

• On average, every US dollar invested in water
  and sanitation provides an economic return of
  eight US dollars. (1)
• An investment of US11.3 billion per year is
  needed to meet the drinking water and sanitation
  target of the Millennium Development Goals,
  yielding a total payback for US 84 billion a
  year. (10)
• Other estimated economic benefits of investing in
  drinking-water and sanitation (10)
• 272 million school attendance days a year
• 1.5 billion healthy days for children under five
  years of age
• Values of deaths averted, based on discounted
  future earnings, amounting to US 3.6 billion a
  year
• Health-care savings of US 7 billion a year for
  health agencies and US 340 million for
  individuals