M5.2 Safe Drinking Water

I was not aware of how dependent we are on ground water! I can only imagine how depleted our ground water in the central valley is now because of the drought we had for years. We are only able to observe the levels of surface water, so the increasing levels of lakes and rivers are not good indicators of our water reserves. This is of utmost importance since the agriculture, not just of the state, but also of the whole country, depends on it. It is possible, as mentioned in the video, that it will take decades to replenish the groundwater to healthy levels, so that puts us at a greater risk, since it is possible to have more droughts in the years to come and thus increase the rate of depletion. On top of all that, we have to worry about the contamination of the little water that we do have. The Clean Water Act of 1972 is definitely a good start, but more similar laws with stricter implementations could be needed.



Comments

  1. Sandy TanSeptember 26, 2018 at 3:43 PM

    Hi Hugo,
    I have also learned from this module that we depend on ground water for our water supply. Our depleting source of usable water supply is very concerning, and yet we are using so much of that water for animal agriculture compared to human uses. Humans are often told to not waste water, but I think we should put regulations on how much water is used for animal agriculture

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  2. USF MPH ClassSeptember 27, 2018 at 11:14 AM

    Hi, Being that we are so dependent on our ground water I think we should all be on restrictions for good. We don't need to waste the water we currently do in todays society. Similar to what we did with the drought here over the past 4 years or so. Penalize those that use too much water for their laws, washing cars, etc... Dan

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