WATER
Residents of the Mojave Desert live in an area that normally receives less than ten inches of rain a year, usually less than six. Some places in Death Valley receive less than two inches a year. In contrast, many areas in the northeastern United States receive more than sixty inches of rain annually. Before construction of dams along the Colorado River and development of an elaborate water delivery system, only a few thousand people lived in this region as there was no dependable water supply. Today over twenty million residents prosper here because of this system. WATER WATER
rugged and remote territory in the deep canyons. The river and its major The Colorado River United States. Much of its course passes tributaries traverse through seven rom space the Colorado River is through the hottest, driest region in the states, draining an area of 242,000 square F seen as an undulating blue line that country, where rainfall averages four to miles. extends 1,450 miles from the Rocky six inches a year and the temperature This once-wild river has played a Mountains of Colorado to the Gulf of often rises to 120°F. Each year it carries central role in human society for nearly California. Plummeting from an elevation nine million tons of salt and 136 million two thousand years. Native American of fourteen thousand feet, the river tons of silt to the sea, eroding rock over groups, such as the Anasazi, Mohave, descends through some of the most 1.7 billion years old and carving mile- Hualapai, and Paiute indians farmed its
�������
����� ���� ���� ����� ����� �������� ������� ����� ��� ���� ���� ���� ����� �����
������ ���� ���� ����� ����� ����� ������ � � � ��� � � � � � �� ������ ���� � ��� � � � � � � ����� �������� � � � � �� � � ���� � ��������
�
�
� � �
� � � ������ � � � � ��������� ���� ����
�
�
�
���� � ������ ������� � ���� ������ ��� � � ������ ��� ���� ���� � �� � ��
� � � � �� � � � �� � �� � �� �� � ��� ����� � � ������ ��� ���� ������ �� ����� �� � �� �� � � � ������ �� ����� ��� �� � �� � � ���� ������ �� ���� ������ ���� �� ��� ������� ������� � � � �� ����� �� ���� �� �� �� ��� ��� ������ ��� � ��� ������ � � �������� ���� ��� � ���� � � � ���� ����� ��� � ������� � � � ��������� ��� �� � ������ � ������� �� � � � � �� �� ��� � �������� ��� � � �� � ��� ��� ��� �������� ����� ������ ��� ��� ������� ������ ��� ����
������ Map not drawn to scale
UNIT IV–2 UNIT IV–3 WATER WATER
fertile flood plains for centuries. Native fish, such as the Colorado squawfish and the humpback sucker, provided an GLOSSARY important food source. adaptation — special tools for coming from precipitation and surface Early peoples had many different survival; physical or behavioral water that has percolated down. names for the Colorado. The Mohaves, characteristics that make an organism Water that supplies wells and springs. who lived along its banks, called the more suited to its environment. habitat — the place where a plant river Ahamcave (along the water). The aquifer — rock or sediment through or animal lives, an organism’s home. Paiutes of southern Utah called the which groundwater moves easily. Provides food, water, shelter, and Grand Canyon section of the Colorado space in a suitable arrangement. Pahaweep (water down deep in the atmosphere — the gaseous mass earth). Named the Tison or Firebrand surrounding Earth to a height of 500 icecap — a covering of ice and snow River by white explorers of the 1500s, miles and held in place by Earth’s permanently overlying an extensive the river did not receive its present title gravity; provides the gases essential tract of land and moving in all until 1776 when a Spanish missionary to life: oxygen, carbon dioxide, directions from a center. traveled to the edge of the Grand Canyon nitrogen, and water vapor. Water is oasis — a fertile or green spot with and described what he saw as El Rio stored in the atmosphere as clouds. water in a desert. Palms, mesquite, Colorado (the red river). cloud — a visible body of fine willows, and cottonwood trees may Rivers historically have been used droplets of water. May exist up to grow there. as major routes of travel, often through several miles above Earth’s surface. land that was otherwise inaccessible. Pleistocene Epoch — an epoch The Colorado, however, until tamed condensation — the process by beginning about 2.5 million years ago by Hoover Dam, remained an almost which water changes from the vapor and ending about 10,000 years ago. impenetrable obstacle to navigation. state to the liquid or solid state. Water Best known as a time of extensive One of those who tried was Lt. J.C. Ives, vapor stored in clouds condenses to continental glaciation. sent by the United States Army in 1858 form rain. precipitation — water received to travel up the Colorado by boat as far conservation — the careful use of a directly from clouds as rain, hail, as possible from the Gulf of California. specific resource such as water. sleet, or snow. He piloted his steamboat five miles upstream from where Hoover Dam now ecosystem — the interaction of riparian — located or living along or stands and remarked: the biological community (all living near a stream, river, or body of water. things) and the physical environment “The region is altogether spring — a natural flow of (water, air, minerals). valueless. Ours was the first, and groundwater that reaches the surface. will doubtless be the last, party evaporation — the process by suitable arrangement — when of whites to visit this profitless which water changes into a vapor. those things necessary for survival locality. It seems intended by glacier — a thick mass of ice (food, water, shelter, space) are Nature that the Colorado River originating on land from the adequate in quantity, accessible, and shall be forever unvisited and compacting and recrystallization of in keeping with the biological lifestyle undisturbed.” snow that shows evidence of past or of a species. It was not until 1869, when Maj. John present flow. transpiration — a process by which Wesley Powell, a Civil War veteran, plants evaporate moisture through completed his historic journey down the groundwater — water stored the surfaces of their leaves. river from Green River, Wyoming, that beneath the surface of the ground, the Colorado was finally mapped in its entirety. in Las Vegas, Nevada; Palm Springs, the river, and ten major dams have been Today over twenty million people rely San Diego, and Los Angeles, California; built along its course in an attempt to on the Colorado River as their primary and Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. Two control its unpredictable behavior. water supply, including people living million acres of farmland are irrigated by So important is this river to residents
UNIT IV–2 UNIT IV–3 WATER WATER
of the Southwest that some have called chub, the bonytail chub, and the The Devil’s Hole pupfish was declared it “the most legislated, litigated, and Colorado squawfish. All have developed an endangered species in 1967 and its debated river in the world.” All the specific structures to survive the survival is still uncertain. This two-inch water in the Colorado River was legally extreme environmental conditions of fish is one of five species of pupfish allocated among the seven contiguous their turbulent, silty habitat, the most that are found in Death Valley springs. states with the signing of the Colorado common adaptation being a large hump Its entire population is restricted to River Compact in 1922. Through this behind the head. This hump allows the one small pool. Pupfish have survived compact, 16.9 million acre-feet were fish to stay on the bottom of the stream from the Pleistocene Epoch when given away, two million acre-feet more where currents are not so strong. large inland seas covered much of the than existed in the entire system (one These fish depend upon tributary Southwest. As climates changed and acre-foot of water equals 325,000 gallons canyons that provide shallow spawning the waters receded, the fish gradually or the amount an average family of areas and protected back bays for adapted to smaller pools that have four uses in one year). An additional juveniles. Most of the traditional large concentrations of salts and other 1.5 million acre-feet were promised to spawning areas have been flooded with minerals toxic to most fish. Their ability Mexico annually with the signing of a the rising waters of human-made lakes. to tolerate these saline conditions could 1944 agreement. Today, because of an While rivers change almost overnight one day be very valuable in researching extended drought, it is estimated that with the completion of dams, native life human kidney diseases. less than nine million acre-feet flow adapts much more slowly, if at all. Southern Nevada’s needs for new down the river each year. Of that, only a Up to sixty thousand razorback sources of water could have a direct trickle finally finds it way to the Gulf of suckers still exist in Lake Mohave, a impact on the fishes of Death Valley California. remnant population that was there National Park. The Las Vegas Valley The river has also been described before the construction of Davis Dam. Water District has applied for permits as “a finite resource with an infinite Most of these fish are twenty-five to to withdraw water from the groundwater demand.” Most years it never reaches sixty years old and are not reproducing supply underlying central Nevada, the the ocean. Because of this demand, in successfully. If no effort is made to assist same aquifer that feeds many springs 1991 the Colorado River was declared them, it is likely they will become extinct in Death Valley as well as springs the most endangered river in the within the next ten years. A recovery throughout Nevada. United States by American Rivers, a effort is now underway in Lake Mohave. Much attention has been paid to conservation society. A back bay has been separated by a conserving “likeable” species such as barrier from the main river channel the desert tortoise and the bighorn in order to provide a spawning area sheep. Insects, fishes, and other What Good for eighty adult fish. The young will smaller organisms are often ignored. be protected there until they are at The National Park Service is legally Is A Fish? least ten inches long and better able to obligated to protect all species found in uch of the native life that exists compete with predatory fish such as national parks, both for the enjoyment M in or along the Colorado River carp and largemouth bass. If this project of future generations and for the is endangered. Construction of dams is successful, similar attempts may be irreplaceable roles species play in the forever changed the character of the made to reestablish the bonytail chub ecology of our planet. However, the river. Once warm, silty, swift, and and the Colorado squawfish. National Park Service cannot defend shallow, the river is now cold, clear, Nevada has eighty-two known native wildlife, from shrimp to lizards to bats deep, and virtually stagnant along much species of fish. Of these, seventeen to bears, without the cooperation and of its route. are listed as endangered and four commitment of all Americans. The Fish, in particular, cannot tolerate are listed as threatened. Thirty-one survival of the human species depends these changes. Seventy percent of species are being considered for listing. upon our ability to protect the ecology of the fish population of the Colorado Thirteen species have become extinct. our planet, including the fish. River exists nowhere else in the world. The primary reason for this decline is Four species of fish native to the river groundwater pumping for irrigation and are endangered — the razorback (or other water needs, drying many of the humpback) sucker, the humpback natural springs where native fish thrive.
UNIT IV–4 UNIT IV–5 WATER WATER Water Fun Facts — WATER WONDERS Conservation t first glance the water supply • Nearly 80% of Earth’s surface is covered with water. This is the same amount of Aseems limitless. Lakes Mead and water that was here billions of years ago. Water cannot be created or destroyed. Mohave have over seven hundred miles • 97% of all the water on Earth is salt of shoreline. Lake Mohave extends sixty- water. seven miles upstream from Davis Dam, and Lake Mead backs up 110 miles • 3% of Earth’s water is fresh water. behind Hoover Dam, before it meets the Grand Canyon. When completely full, • 2% of Earth’s water is glacial ice at the Lake Mead could supply every person in North and South poles. the world with 2,200 gallons of water or enough water to cover the state of New • Only 1% of the world’s water is fresh York to a depth of one foot. Lake Powell, water available for us to use. formed by Glen Canyon Dam in 1963, has • The Great Lakes contain 20% of the over 1900 miles of shoreline. Lake Mead, world’s fresh water. with its capacity of 28.5 million acre-feet, and Lake Powell, with its capacity of • A person’s body is about 70% water. twenty-seven million acre-feet, can each hold over two year’s worth of runoff from • A person can live only two to three the Colorado River. days without water. Why should we be concerned about conserving this vast resource? • An average person in the United States uses 77 gallons of water per day. Construction of human-made reservoirs • Groundwater supplies 50% of the drinking water in the United States. has given us a false sense of security. Inaccurate measurements led us to • About half of the fresh water used in the United States is for irrigation. believe more water was available than existed. The large lakes allow • 60% of domestic water is used to water gardens and lawns. tremendous amounts of water to evaporate — two million acre-feet • A gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds. evaporate from these surfaces each year, • It takes about 120 gallons of water to produce an egg. This includes water to thirty million gallons of water evaporate raise the grain to feed the chicken. It takes 100 times more water to produce a from Lake Mead every hour. In fact, more pound of meat than a pound of wheat. water evaporates off the surface of Lake Mead every day than is used by the entire state of Nevada. Much of the remaining water is used lands that it is unsafe to drink. Water using less than their allocated share. unwisely. More than sixty percent is delivered to Mexico must first go Nevada will soon be consuming all of its sprayed over household lawns and through a desalination plant in Yuma, allotment and will need to come to terms gardens or used to irrigate farmlands in but desalination plants are expensive with the fact that there is no more water. the valleys of Southern California, often to build and expensive to use. Water As populations expand and demands with inefficient systems. So much water produced at a desalination plant built in continue to rise, something will have to is used that the mighty Colorado rarely Santa Barbara, California, may cost up change. Conservation must play a vital reaches the ocean anymore. to $1,900 an acre-foot, or more than nine role in adapting to modern-day use of As the river approaches its times the normal cost. How much will we water in the desert. destination, what water there is has such be willing to pay for water in the future? a high concentration of salts, pesticides, The Colorado River system continues and fertilizers from agricultural to work only because some states are
UNIT IV–4 UNIT IV–5 WATER WATER
wings, tail)? Did you invent anything EXTENDING THE EXPERIENCE: Activity 1 special which will help it adapt to living Talk about threats to aquatic habitats, Creature Feature in a desert region (surviving flash floods, such as construction of dams along the drought)? An example of an invented Colorado River or draining a spring for OBJECTIVE: Create a creature with creature is below. irrigation. How would this creature adapt adaptations for living in a riparian area. to these and other man-made changes? 3. Have students (or groups) share Would this creature disappear or would MATERIALS: Crayons, drawing paper. their creatures with the class, discussing it adapt? ways each animal has adapted to an SUBJECTS: Art, language arts, science. What could be done to protect this aquatic habitat. SKILLS: Analysis, classification, drawing, animal and still satisfy our water needs? problem solving, public speaking, reporting, small group work. EXAMPLE: DOUBLE-CRESTED CREVICE CREEPER METHOD: 1. Introduce students to the term WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? — This is a scaly-fleshed, bird-like creature. It has no riparian zone. This is an area that feathers. The scales and flesh on its head, body, and legs have a rosy, golden hue. includes not only the water, but the The creeper is the size of a sparrow. vegetation associated with the water. WHERE DOES IT LIVE? — It lives near rocky stream bottoms, along muddy banks, Riparian zones are areas that surround and in areas of calm, deep pools for diving. This creature is mainly a wader, but it fresh water springs and that line can submerge for up to three minutes in search of food. It is a non-migratory bird riverbanks and lakeshores. Many animals that lives in the southern part of the United States where the climate is mild all year living in this area could not survive long. without the special conditions that the riparian zone provides. Riparian WHAT DOES IT EAT? — It feeds on insects, worms, animal carcasses, and discarded areas often provide different and more human food. abundant vegetation than surrounding WHO EATS IT? — The creeper can be attacked by snakes and raccoons. It uses its areas, a higher percentage of shade, trees long, pointed beak in defense against predators, goring them and then feeding on for nesting or shelter, higher humidity, their carcasses. It shares the carcasses with other water and land animals, using and more diverse plant and animal life. the carcasses as bait to prey upon any insect, small creature, or fish that looks Riparian areas are easily affected by delectable. natural and man-made changes. WHAT ARE ITS ADAPTATIONS? — 2. Have each student design a 1. It has a long bill for finding food in cracks and crevices of rocks and in mud. The creature adapted to living in a riparian creeper also uses its bill for snatching curious insects out of the air and small fish area. This activity can be done that may get too close. individually or in small groups. While they are designing the creature, have 2. Double crested, it has two colorful (red with yellow spots) bony ridges on top of them consider the following questions. its head. In and out of water, it has the look of a small blossom, helping to attract Put the questions on a chalkboard or insects. chart paper for easy reference. How are 3. Its eyes have top and bottom lids for its feet adapted to the environment? protection from darting prey and sun. What kind of body covering does it have 4. The coiled tail twists for propulsion that makes it well suited for living in an under water. aquatic area (scales, feathers, shell)? 5. Its webbed feet are for balance Where are its eyes? How can it see what’s and propulsion through water. above, what’s below? How does it move (swim, fly, carried on current)? What 6. Webbed, bat-like wings does it eat? How is its mouth adapted allow for low, short distance to this kind of food? What kind of limbs flight and underwater movement. does it have (arms, legs, flippers, gills,
UNIT IV–6 UNIT IV–7 WATER WATER
fresh water?” Point out that there is a lot The remaining water in the aquarium Activity 2 more salt water than fresh water in the represents salt water. Water, Water world. Ask students to locate icecaps and 3. Ask students to define/describe glaciers. a glacier. Ask the students to predict Everywhere 4. Is salt water available to us to the amount of fresh water locked up in 1 OBJECTIVES: Explain why water is a drink? Place a tablespoon of salt in a glaciers on our planet. Take 1 2⁄ cups limited resource. Name at least three cup of water and have a student take a from the “total fresh water” jar. Put this ways you can conserve water in your sip. Explain that if we drink too much in another jar and label “fresh water in daily life. Recite some simple statistics salt water we lose water in our body. polar icecaps and glaciers.” Advise the regarding water consumption in a typical Salts draw water from body tissues, class that this water is not available for household. preventing the body from functioning use. MATERIALS: Drinking glass with water, normally. 4. Discuss briefly that the atmosphere eye dropper, five gallons of water, 5. Explain that fresh water is our main also contains moisture, which we can five-gallon aquarium or clear plastic source of water for household uses and sometimes see in the form of clouds and container, four jars of equal size (at least for drinking. which can fall to earth as rain, snow, 1 2 2⁄ cups), map of the world, measuring etc. Ask students to describe what cup, paper, salt, tape. Water Use Chart happens to rain after it reaches the SUBJECTS: Language arts, math, science, ground. Remind students that water runs • Brushing teeth — 5 gallons per social studies. into streams, lakes, ponds, and oceans; minute (running water) is used by plants and animals; and SKILLS: Application, computation, • Dripping faucet — 10 to 20 gallons evaporates back into the atmosphere. Be discussion, observation, research. per day sure to discuss the fact that some water METHOD: There is a limited amount of • Flushing the toilet — 5 to 7 gallons falls onto soil and soaks in to become usable water in the world. Therefore, per flush groundwater. Ask students to predict it is important for people to conserve • Taking a bath — 30 to 40 gallons how much of the remaining fresh water 1 water in their daily lives. This activity is atmospheric or groundwater. Take 4⁄ • Taking a shower — 5 to 7 gallons demonstrates that our water resources cup from the “total fresh water” jar. Put per minute are limited, shows how much water this in a jar and label “atmospheric and can be wasted by a typical family, • Using a dishwasher — 15 to 25 ground water.” Discuss why most of and presents ways students and their gallons per load this fresh water is not available for use families can save water. This is a two- • Washing a car — 30 to 40 gallons — because it is in the clouds or under a part activity, consisting of a class • Washing laundry — 20 to 40 gallons thick rock layer. discussion followed by a demonstration. per loa 1 5. There should be 2⁄ cup water DISCUSSION: • Watering the lawn — 5 to 10 gallons remaining in the “total fresh water” jar. 1. Begin activity with a discussion per minute Take five drops out with an eyedropper. of the ways we use water each day, These five drops represent the amount including how we use water to make the of fresh water available to humans. 1 foods we eat. DEMONSTRATION: The 2⁄ cup, less five drops, represents 2. Ask: “How many of you think there 1. Fill an aquarium with five gallons surface and groundwater that is either is a lot of water in the world? How many of water. Tell students this will represent technologically or economically of you think there is not a lot of water in the total amount of water in our unfeasible to make available for human the world?” Explain: “You are all correct. ecosystem. Label this container “total use — including polluted water. Put the There is a lot of water in the world, water on the Earth.” five drops in a jar and label “fresh water 1 however there is not a lot of water we 2. Remove 2 4⁄ cups of water from available to humans.” You may wish can actually use.” the large container. Tell students this to place a few drops of food coloring 3. Display a world map. Have students represents the total supply of fresh in this jar so that students can see it read names of oceans from the world water in the system. Put this into one easier. Relabel the “total fresh water” jar map. Ask: “Are our oceans salt water or of the jars next to the aquarium. Label “polluted or too costly to use.” this jar “total fresh water on Earth.”
UNIT IV–6 UNIT IV–7 WATER
6. Conclude this activity by discussing actions for water, words that describe how we can ensure that this limited feelings about water, and synonyms for amount of fresh water is not polluted or water. Word search lost in some way. What are some ways to 5. Have students write short poems conserve water? to describe their feelings about water vocabulary EXTENDING THE EXPERIENCE: or have them paint a water scene. atmosphere Reproduce the water use chart in a One possible poetic form to use is this larger format. Have students keep track version of a cinquain. This is a five-line bighorn for one week of how much water they poem that contains the following format: use. Multiply this by the number of The first line consists of one word, cactus people in the family. Add the amount of the subject of the poem. The second cloud water used for watering the lawn and line consists of two words, adjectives garden, washing the car, etc. How could describing the subject. The third line condensation some of this water be conserved? contains three words which express the subject’s action (past, present, or future). conservation On the fourth line the author writes four creosote words describing his/her feelings about Activity 3 the subject. The final line is a synonym cycle for the subject. Water Words EXAMPLE: desert OBJECTIVES: Describe the water cycle. drink Describe one feeling they have about Ocean water. Gray, rough drip MATERIALS: Bulletin board, crayons, evaporation Discovery Activity Pages #1 and #2, Smashing, crashing, roaring paint brushes, magazines, paper, pencils, I’m half afraid, you fish scissors, watercolors. SUBJECTS: Art, language arts, science. Sea groundwater SKILLS: Analysis, discussion, listing, After the cinquains are complete, they lake mapping, research, writing. can be shared by reading them aloud or displaying them with art. mesquite METHOD: 1. Ask students to cut photographs EXTENDING THE EXPERIENCE: oasis from magazines showing water. Display Research where your water comes from. these on a classroom bulletin board. Does your water come from a well or palm from a central delivery system? Visit 2. Ask students to list words your local water treatment plant and precipitation connected to water, including ways they learn step-by-step how water gets to rain feel about the water in the photographs your area. Using a map of your local and its importance to plants and animals. water system trace the water to its riparian 3. Pass out copies of the two activity source. pages. Referring to the list at the end river of this activity, write the word search vocabulary on the board. Introduce the spring words and use some of them to describe transpiration the water cycle. Have the students try to use these words in sentences. Have water students complete the word search. willow 4. Brainstorm adjectives for water,
UNIT IV–8 WATER Discovery Activity Page #1
WATER
C O N S E R V A T I O N C P W R O L C R I W H E L C Y C R I V I N B Y K B S W G J C B E L Q R P D L E V I X A U L J C L V N E A E A T F M O T O X I O N O V V R N P I R D W U S P W P I A A I I S X U D H D R I A I T P U T R A A F Q N M Q T T D A O A Y M C N T R S R S A E C R R M L H O E I I A E Z T R N I A P I M A S K G O I M I G R P T E C O N D P O N N N O A O S I E Y H T L K H A I I N T H N O J D T P G U S E N R S F G A N K E K A L Z F S R Q P U I R V G R O U N D W A T E R S B T E T O S O E R C D E S E R T
UNIT IV–8 WATER Discovery Activity Page #2 The Water Cycle ll the water that exists on the Earth today was created billions of years ago. The amount remains exactly the same. Water Achanges form from solid to liquid to gas (vapor), but it can never be destroyed. As water changes form it travels through a never ending cycle — from rainfall to rivers, lakes, and oceans, then stored as groundwater or returned to the atmosphere by evaporation or transpiration. This cycle connects the world’s water as one body, but only 1% of it is available as fresh water for humans to use. We must be careful to protect the quality of this water as it can become contaminated easily. All life depends upon water in order to survive. OCEAN STORAGE OCEAN EVAPORATION CLOUD STORAGE CLOUD TRANSPIRATION GROUNDWATER PRECIPITATION PERCOLATION LAKE STORAGE LAKE
WATER