Groundwater and Surface water in a Watershed

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Groundwater and Surface water in a Watershed

• Human Activity

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What is Groundwater?

• Groundwater is water that comes from the ground.
  Sounds easy, doesn't it? Amazingly, many people
  use groundwater but don't even know it. In fact,
  half of everyone in the United States drinks
  groundwater everyday! Groundwater is even used to
  irrigate crops which grow food for tonight's
  dinner.

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Where Does Groundwater Come From?

• Groundwater comes from rain, snow, sleet, and
  hail that soaks into the ground. The water moves
  down into the ground because of gravity, passing
  between particles of soil, sand, gravel, or rock
  until it reaches a depth where the ground is
  filled, or saturated, with water. The area that
  is filled with water is called the saturated zone
  and the top of this zone is called the water
  table. Makes sense, doesn't it? The top of the
  water is a table! The water table may be very
  near the ground's surface or it may be hundreds
  of feet below.

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Do YOU Live on a Watershed?

• Do ya? Huh? Do ya???
• What do you think of when you hear the term
  watershed?

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Watershed Diagram
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What is a Watershed?

• Watershed- the land area from which surface
  runoff drains into a stream channel, lake,
  reservoir, or other body of water also called
  a drainage basin. A BASIN is the entire
  geographical area drained by a major river and
  its intersecting streams.
• In every watershed, small streams flow into
  larger streams, which flow into rivers, lakes,
  and bays. The smallest streams at the outer
  limits of a watershed are called headwaters.
  Headwaters are the source and upper part of a
  stream.

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What is a Watershed?

• These headwater streams have no tributaries and
  are called first order streams. All other streams
  have tributaries. Second order streams form when
  first order streams meet.A tributary is a stream
  that flows into a larger stream or other body of
  water.

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Do WE Live on a Watershed?

• All land is a part of some watershed! Not only do
  streams and rivers flow to a collecting basin,
  but so too do the impacts that humans have upon
  those waterbodies. Human activities that impact
  the quality of the river water flowing into a
  basin also impact the basin itself.

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YOUR Watershed!

• http//cfpub.epa.gov/surf/huc.cfm?huc_code1210030
  4

This is your watershed.
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Think About This

• Think about this have you ever dug a hole in
  sand next to an ocean or lake? What happens? As
  you're digging, you eventually reach water,
  right? That water is groundwater. The water in
  lakes, rivers, or oceans is called surface
  water...it's on the surface. Groundwater and
  surface water sometimes trade places. Groundwater
  can move through the ground and into a lake or
  stream. Water in a lake can soak down into the
  ground and become groundwater.

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Where is Groundwater Stored?

• Groundwater is stored in the ground in materials
  like gravel or sand. It's kind of like the earth
  is a big sponge holding all that water. Water can
  also move through rock formations like sandstone
  or through cracks in rocks.An area that holds a
  lot of water, which can be pumped up with a well,
  is called an aquifer. Wells pump groundwater from
  the aquifer and then pipes deliver the water to
  cities, houses in the country, or to crops.

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How Does Groundwater Fit in the Water Cycle?

• The water cycle is also known as the hydrologic
  cycle- the same water is cycled on earth since
  the beginning of time.
• Where does this water come from?

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How does the water cycle all begin?

• The water cycle has no beginning or ending point.
  
• The Sun plays a major role in the water cycle.
• The Sun drives the water cycle.

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Steps of the water cycle

• 1) Evaporation- happens when heat is added to
  water molecules and causes them to slowly
  transform from liquid into vapor.
• What phase change occurs?
• 2) Condensation- water vapor travels up into the
  atmosphere and condenses, forming clouds.
• 3) Precipitation- Water vapor in the clouds
  condense more and more until they form water
  droplets. The clouds get heavy and cause the
  droplets to fall as rain, sleet, snow, or hail.

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Steps of the water cycle

• 4) Infiltration/Runoff- Infiltration means water
  soaks into the ground (called recharge). Runoff
  is when water flows from high points of ground to
  low points, due to gravity.
• Down, down, down the water goes through the soil
  until it becomes groundwater and is stored in the
  aquifer below.Once the water has joined the
  aquifer, it doesnt stop there. The groundwater
  slowly moves through the spaces and cracks
  between the soil particles on its journey to
  lower elevations. This movement of water
  underground is called groundwater
  flow.Eventually, after years of underground
  movement, the groundwater comes to a discharge
  area where it enters a lake or stream. There, the
  water will once again be evaporated and begin the
  cycle again. Water has been transported through
  the water cycle for millions of years and will
  continue this cycle forever. In the water cycle,
  water is constantly on the move.  

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Draw and Label Animation of the Water Cycle
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Click on this page and listen..

• http//www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/flash/flash_wate
  rcycle.html

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What Happens to Groundwater?

• Most groundwater is clean, but groundwater can
  become polluted, or contaminated. It can become
  polluted from leaky underground tanks that store
  gasoline, leaky landfills, or when people apply
  too much fertilizer or pesticides on their fields
  or lawns. When pollutants leak, spill, or are
  carelessly dumped on the ground they can move
  through the soil.Because it is deep in the
  ground, groundwater pollution is generally
  difficult and expensive to clean up. Sometimes
  people have to find new places to dig a well
  because their own became contaminated.

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Human Activity

• Human activities commonly affect the
  distribution, quantity, and chemical quality of
  water resources.
• Human activity can include agriculture, urban
  development and industry, drainage of low-lying
  areas, construction of levees, dams, or
  reservoirs and removal of vegetation from flood
  plains.

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Agriculture

• Irrigation removes groundwater or surface water
  for use on crops then carries it away.
• Chemicals, pesticides or fertilizers, are applied
  to croplands and eventually make their way into
  watersheds can lead to an overgrowth of algae in
  water.

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Urban Development

• Discharge from sewage-treatment plants,
  industrial facilities, and storm water drains,
  leaking fluid storage tanks, septic tanks, and
  landfills can also add to the contamination.
• Urbanization changes rain run-off from its
  original path.

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Quiz Time
Which of the following sets of equipment can be
used to analyze the effects of human activity on
a watershed? A water testing kit, triple beam
balance B water testing kit, hand lens,
notebook C water testing kit, beaker, hotplate D
hot plate, beaker, graduated cylinder
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Discuss this with each other

• A small stream runs through the center of a
  residential neighborhood. Water enters the stream
  from a series of storm drains in the area. For
  many years, the shape of the streambed, the
  amount of water, and the species of wildlife have
  remained stable however, there has been an
  increase in building in the area. New homes, new
  streets, and new storm drains have impacted the
  area.
• Describe what effect the changes will likely have
  on the stream.

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• Palo Duro Canyon, often called the Grand
• Canyon of Texas, is located in the Panhandle.
• The steep walls and deep caves of the canyon
• were most likely carved by
• A years of prevailing winds from the Rocky
  Mountains
• B deforestation by early settlers
• C water erosion from a fork of the Red River
• D continuous, intense rainfall over long periods
  of time

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Finally youre finished!

• Hope you got all this great information on
  watersheds and the water cycle.