WHAT IS YOUR WATER SOURCE?
Where does your drinking water come from? Does it come from a well, a reservoir, or a natural spring? It is good to know where your water comes from. With the help of your parent or teacher, call your local water company and learn about your water source. With your family, or with your class, you may want to take a field trip to your local water treatment plant to find out how your drinking water is purified for drinking. Then find out if your school or your family uses a water filtration system. There are many different kinds of water filtration systems. Some of them only filter out harmful bacteria where others filter out sand, iron and other minerals and chemicals.
Think About It!
What kinds of changes can you make to help improve your drinking water supply?
GLOSSARY
Best Management Practices (BMPs) - Practical solutions that keep pollutants from entering water bodies, i.e., planting grass on loose soil to keep it from washing away (eroding) during rainstorms.
Erode - The process where soil is washed away by rain.
Fertilizer - Natural or man-made materials worked into the soil as plant food.
Filtration - The process of purifying water.
Natural Resources - Natural substances we use, i.e., trees, water, soil, oil, etc.
Pollutants - Chemicals or organic wastes that contaminate air, soil, or water.
Polluted Runoff - Stormwater pushing and pulling pollutants along with it.
Purify - To make clean.
Reservoir - A body of water stored in a natural or an artificial lake.
Streamside Buffer - Trees, bushes, and grasses planted alongside a stream to help filter pollutants before entering the water.
Watershed - The area of land that drains into a particular water body.
