Earth's Freshwater
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ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY TEACHER GUIDE SERIES Earth’s Freshwater A Guide for Teaching Freshwater in Grades 3 to 8 Water Rights and CHAPTER 6 Human Communities by Ari J Posner n the United States and around of Earth’s major watersheds are shared at political and social issues related to the globe, there are political by multiple nations? Imagine what freshwater such as supply and demand I struggles related to securing clean happens when one country has a for water, water rights, and public- and abundant water resources. This population larger than their own water health concerns. may not seem like a real issue to your can supply. For example, India has 17 students because they simply turn percent of the world’s population, but Water Scarcity on the tap and safe drinking water only 4 percent of the world’s accessible and Stress flows. Yet, even cities in the United freshwater (Berg & Hager 2007). In the United States, almost all water States are continually monitoring the Imagine if one country has higher or scarcity issues have been addressed using safety of municipal drinking water and lower water quality standards compared technological solutions. Water scarcity promoting conservation efforts. In to a neighboring country. Water does can be talked about in two ways— other parts of the world, access to safe not follow political boundaries. physical scarcity and economic scarcity. drinking water is more of an issue. Water is a limited natural resource, Physical water scarcity happens when The way we use and share water in so there is inevitable tension and there is a lack of water due to droughts our communities is a complicated issue. unrest that occurs when people try to or depletion in surface or groundwater Students, however, may not understand secure their supply. This chapter builds resources due to consumption or how complicated the issue can become. on concepts already introduced in lack of conservation. Economic Did you know that almost three-fourths Chapters 4 and 5, taking a closer look scarcity happens when people lack the 112 Water Rights and Human Communities GRADE STANDARD EEI UNIT The demand for water has increased and is expected to increase further, while Grade 3 3 1 2 The Geography of Where We Live our supplies of water are decreasing. 3 5 3 California Choices—Natural Choices When human communities experience Grade 4 4 1 5 Reflections of Where We Live higher demands for less supply, they 4 5 3-4 experience water stress. Water stress happens when supply of water does not Grade 5 5 3 d-e Our Water: Sources and Uses match demand, or when other factors Grade 6 (i.e., water quality or water flow) are not sufficient for healthy ecosystems. Grade 7 7 3 a Shaping Natural Systems through Evolution Typically dry areas such as the Middle 7 3 e Responding to Environmental Change East and large portions of the Western Grade 8 8 8 4 Struggles with Water United States exhibit high water stress as 8 12 1 Agriculture and Industrial Development in the shown in the map on the next page. United States Water scarcity and water stress are issues of growing concern in the United States. Some signs to consider include technological or financial capital to take As discussed in Chapter 3, technology, the following events, which have advantage of existing water resources such as canals and aqueducts, is needed occurred since 2007. These are from a list that are accessible. For example, some to transport water from distant sources of events described by Glennon 2009: countries or communities do not have to areas of water scarcity. But these • Farmers in the western states watched sufficient infrastructure to transport canal systems cost money that some their crops struggle because of lack of water to people who need the water. communities cannot afford. irrigation water. CHAPTER OVERVIEW Water politics are becoming increasingly heated as the population around Pictures of Practice: the world grows and water supplies decrease. In the United States, the Who Owns Water? 117 illusion of limitless freshwater is common in our communities. From turning In the Classroom: on the faucet to washing clothes, the water used in our everyday lives is Water Allocations 118 accessible and clean, and we’ve come to depend on that. Student Thinking: Water quality and water politics go hand in hand, and will only grow in Water Ownership 119 importance in the future, as clean water supplies decrease. How are rights to Pictures of Practice: water determined, and how will they be determined as freshwater becomes Conflicts Over Water 120 harder to obtain? The answer is not simple, because there are many different Case Study: laws that govern water. There are even places, such as California, where Water in Border Regions 121 many rules apply making the issue even more complex. Historically, the In the Classroom: United States followed Riparian Doctrine to determine one’s right to water, Water Wars Around but Prior Appropriation, is another widely used doctrine in the American the World 122 West. Conflict can arise when two countries or even two people believe their right to clean water is being threatened. This chapter explores issues related to water rights and water politics and how human activities are making water a scarce resource. Water Rights and Human Communities 113 This map is based on the ratio between surface water availability and the water needed for human use and healthy ecosystems. Water-stressed areas shown are those where water use exceeds the natural renewable water supply and puts freshwater ecosystems at risk. • The government of the city of Atlanta, All of these issues mentioned are how it is divided among people? It is Georgia, banned the use of water for due to water stress brought on mostly common for students to believe that car washing, lawn watering, as well as by physically scarcity (either through whoever discovers the water or who swimming pools when the region was droughts or overconsumption of water). names the body of water is able to three months short of running out of In cases of extreme drought, cities decide what happens to it. It is also water. also adopt political and behavioral common for people to believe that if you • The town of Orme, Tennessee, was solutions. Many of your students will own land with water, the water is also forced to bring water in from Alabama be familiar with the now-common yours to use. However, because water is in trucks as they ran out of their own practice of limiting days and times when a limited resource, there are several laws reserves. lawn irrigation is permitted, where the protecting how we use the water. • According to the Scripps Institution government and water companies help In the United States, there is one key of Oceanography, Lake Mead, which regulate water use. But in developing set of laws that governs water resources. supplies water to every major city countries, there is little existing As populations moved from England to in the American Southwest, could infrastructure to distribute water to America, they brought their traditional become dry by 2021. communities, let alone government water laws with them. This set of laws • A South Carolina paper company assistance and guidance when water is known as the Riparian Doctrine had to lay off hundreds of workers, needs to be rationed in drought (riparian refers to rivers). The Riparian because it could not discharge its conditions. Doctrine originated in medieval times wastewater into the river, due to low when landowners owned the rivers or flows. Water and Politics streams that traversed their property. • At least thirty-five U.S. states are Who really owns water? It is a natural This meant they had the rights to water fighting with neighboring states and resource found on Earth. How do we that flowed through those rivers or countries over water. decide who owns the resource, and streams. The landowners could even 114 Water Rights and Human Communities seek compensation for loss of water Pueblos represent another unique that had been diverted upstream. situation. Pueblos are communities of The only way that non-landowners Native Americans. Pueblo rights are could obtain water was if they were derived from Spanish law in which granted permission from a landowner. Spanish or Mexican pueblos have claim Nowadays, the Riparian Doctrine still to water. Pueblo rights take precedence guides our decisions about water. It over other water rights. When states that those who own property determining pueblo rights we must look along the edge of a water body have the at the entire watershed that feeds the right to use that water as they wish, so river or stream traveling through the long as it does not affect water for other original pueblo. Pueblos have rights to riparian landowners. When this policy surface and underground water from was put into place, the major uses of this watershed. However, pueblos can water were for domestic and livestock only take water from the watershed water needs. However, several political within their modern city limits. That conflicts arose even within this system. A tomato seedling is stunted by means that a pueblo citizen cannot go Water Politics in California. One salt buildup during a drought in to a place outside of the pueblo limits California. example of water politics to discuss and pull water off the watershed. Also, with students is how water was claimed pueblos cannot sell excess water outside during the California Gold Rush. This Because California is a state with the city limits. example makes a nice connection for dual water rights—both the Riparian Groundwater is another source of students between science and social Doctrine and Prior Appropriation are water that is sometimes regulated by science concepts.