Where Does Our Water Come From?
During June, July, and August of 1994, Washington
Township used 544,281,000 gallons of water. In June of 1994,
228,747,000 gallons were used for an average of 7,624,900 per day. With a storage
capacity of around 7 million gallons, you can see why we need to conserve water.
Summer use more than doubles the 3,624,290 gallons we used per day in January of
1994. Where does all this water come from? The most obvious answer is that
water comes from the Washington Township Municipal Utilities Authority, but it is more
complex than that. Our water comes to us as a result of the water cycle.
Water Cycle
 |
In the water cycle, water is endlessly
recycled. Energy from the sun causes water to evaporate from the lakes, ponds,
pools, soil, or even your skin. Transpiration is evaporation from the plants that
allows the plants to draw nutrients up from the soil. The water vapor condenses in
the sky where it forms clouds. Gravity causes it to fall back to earth as some form
of precipitation like rain, sleet, or snow.
Water from rain moves down into the soil where some
of it is absorbed by plants while the rest of it keeps moving down to the water table, an
area of ground saturated with water. Some precipitation runs off of paved areas and
other land surfaces, washing pollutants from the ground into storm drain's or sewers and
eventually into streams, rivers, and lakes. Some of this water will also move down
through the soil to the water table.
As the water slowly moves down through the ground it
is filtered and cleaned. This water will eventually collect in an area of porous
rock, gravel, or sand called an aquifer. Aquifers are natural underground storage
areas. There are three major aquifers in Washington Township. The deepest is
the Potomac-Raritan-Magothy (Raritan). Next is the Wenonah-Mt. Laurel. Nearest
to the surface is the Cohansey.
Most of the WTMUA's wells draw water from the Raritan
and it is this aquifer that is in trouble. Water is being removed from this aquifer
faster than it can be replaced. In a balanced system, water from rain would
percolate down through the ground recharging the aquifer at the same speed that the water
is being removed so that there is always an adequate supply in the aquifer. The
Raritan is losing water at a dangerous rate and is vulnerable to saltwater intrusion and
other kinds of pollution.
Water Table
|
In order to protect the Raritan for
future use the state has limited the amount of water that we can take from it.
Water conservation must be practiced to help preserve this aquifer for the future.
Top of Page
References |
