Water As a Natural Resource

From the seriesWater Smart

Written and Produced byAlan Sealls, B.S., M.S.

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© 2004 Alan Sealls

Table of Contents

The purchase of this program entitles the user to the right to reproduce orduplicate, in whole or in part, this teacher’s guide and the blackline mas-ter handouts that accompany it for the purpose of teaching in conjunctionwith this program, Water As a Natural Resource. This right is restrictedonly for use with this program. Any reproduction or duplication in wholeor in part of this guide and the blackline master handouts for any purposeother than for use with this program is prohibited.

This video is closed captioned.

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Links to Curriculum Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Summary of the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Instructional Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Pre-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Student Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Student Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Introducing the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

View the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Description of Blackline Masters . . . . . . . . . . .7

Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Extended Learning Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Script of Narration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

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WATER AS A NATURAL RESOURCEWater Smart series

Grades 3-8Viewing Time: 15 minutes

INTRODUCTION

Water Smart is a unit of study comprised of four programs.Spectacular video examples and supporting material make thestudy of water come alive to students. Every program'steacher's guide lists water-related projects that students at eventhe lowest grades can undertake, while each guide suggestsadvanced study topics and projects. The series is an entire"course" in the courses of water in our world and in our lives.Each program stands alone in approaching the various facets ofwater on Earth. These colorful, educational, and entertainingprograms highlight the crucial role water plays in life and howkids can help to conserve and protect it.

The Water Smart series is written and produced by Alan Sealls,an award-winning meteorologist recognized nationally in sci-ence textbooks, CD-ROMs, and educational TV programs.Alan Sealls holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Meteorology. Hehas worked for WGN-TV, CNN, and other TV stations aroundthe United States.

In Water as a Natural Resource, we are introduced to wordssuch as habitat, ecosystem, watershed, and estuary. Not only dokids learn that water exists everywhere on Earth, but that it isvital for life in plants, animals, and all other organisms. Fromthis point, we discuss the need for water conservation and pro-tection of resources in the environment. Numerous examplesare shown that kids can use to become better stewards of cleanwater.

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LINKS TO CURRICULUM STANDARDS

Water as a Natural Resource correlates to the following sci-ence standards:

National Science Education Standards, K-4

Science as InquiryCONTENT STANDARD A:Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry Understanding about scientific inquiry

Physical ScienceCONTENT STANDARD B:Properties of objects and materials

Life ScienceCONTENT STANDARD C:The characteristics of organisms Organisms and environments

Earth and Space ScienceCONTENT STANDARD D:Properties of earth materials

Science and Technology CONTENT STANDARD E:Abilities of technological design Understanding about science and technology

Science in Personal and Social PerspectivesCONTENT STANDARD F:Personal health Types of resources Changes in environments

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National Science Education Standards, 5-8

Science as InquiryCONTENT STANDARD A:Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry Understandings about scientific inquiry

Physical ScienceCONTENT STANDARD B:Properties and changes of properties in matter

Life ScienceCONTENT STANDARD C:Populations and ecosystems

Earth and Space ScienceCONTENT STANDARD D:Structure of the earth system

Science and TechnologyCONTENT STANDARD E:Abilities of technological design Understandings about science and technology

Science in Personal and Social PerspectivesCONTENT STANDARD F:Personal health Populations, resources, and environments Natural hazards

SUMMARY OF PROGRAM

Water as a Natural Resource raises awareness to the value ofclean water on Earth. Take away water from Earth and what doyou have? Not much! That's the focus of Water as a NaturalResource. Concepts of non-point source pollution and waste-water are revealed to students. Kids see how the water cyclelinks and provides a life source for all creatures. We examine

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how wetlands, watersheds and ecosystems are affected by poorwater quality. Different forms of water pollution are presented.Most importantly, a long list of examples is shown so that kidscan take an active role in preserving good water quality andreducing water waste. A true/false quiz at the program conclu-sion provides instant measurement of learning.

A dozen unique Internet links provide ample opportunity forkids to learn more about their local water resources. Teacherswill use the Internet resources to go beyond material presentedand elaborate on water safety. The substantial written materialswill strengthen vocabulary with words like turbid, pesticide,potable, and solvent. Numerous experiments and demonstra-tions not only demonstrate water resource principles but theyoffer opportunity for graphing, calculating, and charting data.

INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES

Before presenting this lesson to your students, we suggest thatyou preview the program and review the guide and accompa-nying Blackline Master activities in order to familiarize your-self with their content.

As you review the materials presented in this guide, you mayfind it necessary to make some changes, additions, or deletionsto meet the specific needs of your class. We encourage you todo so; for only by tailoring this program to your class will theyobtain the maximum instructional benefits afforded by thematerials.

PRE-TEST

Pre-Test is an assessment tool intended to gauge student com-prehension of the objectives prior to viewing the program.Explain to the students that they are not expected to get allanswers correct, but they are expected to try their best. You canremind them that these are key concepts that they should focuson while watching the program.

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STUDENT PREPARATION

Assign students homework to look at the ingredients of food athome to see how many of them list water. You may also havethem look at ingredients of other household items such as paint,cleaners, and toiletries.

Research and find current event or historical articles on waterpollution, oil spills, drought, fish kills, or wastewater. Sharethem with the students and discuss why poor water quality isnot good. Have them create a list of all the ways they use waterdaily. Ask them to list ways they can use less water daily. Haveeach one guess how many gallons of water their family useseach month. Assign them to ask their parents to let them knowwhat the monthly usage is (renters may not have this informa-tion). You might also use the water reading from school over thecourse of a year to see how it fluctuates. Have the studentscome up with reasons for the fluctuation.

Use Blackline Master #5 to introduce vocabulary relevant towater on the Earth. Have students look up and define eachword. Any one of the Blackline experiments will help raise theinterest of students as you start the program.

STUDENT OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of the program and follow-up activities, stu-dents should be able to:

• Describe the value of clean, available water.• List ways to reduce water pollution.• Define pollution, runoff, wastewater, wetland, and estuary.• List and demonstrate water conservation methods.• Identify locations of non-point source pollution.• Measure, graph, and predict personal water usage.• Define and discuss the roles of a watershed.• List items we use everyday that have water.

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• Identify local areas that may contribute to poor water quality.• Compile a list of conservation tips as a "water wheel" to useat home.

INTRODUCING THE PROGRAM

Engaging the students before they view the program is key inmaximizing its impact. Have the class develop a comprehensivelist of where we find water on our planet. Answers shouldinclude in the sky, on the ground, in the ground, in our bodies,in trees, and in our food. Ask who owns water. Discuss howhard it is to claim ownership of something that can be invisible,flow, and mix with water that someone else claims to own.Bring home the point that water is shared more than it is owned.

It is best to identify misconceptions and misinformation aboutwater resources before the lesson. The pre-test or discussionquestions may be used to help accomplish these items.

A video quiz corresponding to Blackline Master #4 is at theprogram conclusion. You may choose to pause the program fora longer period of time between questions to allow for answersor discussion.

VIEW THE PROGRAM

The program runs 15 minutes. Blackline Master #4, VideoQuiz corresponds to the ten true/false questions at the end ofthe program.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

These questions appear on Blackline Master #3 they can beduplicated and distributed to the class. Following the program,you may find it helpful to discuss the key concepts as a class.You may choose to use these questions to begin a discussionprior to viewing the program. Avoid answering questionsdirectly; ask the students higher-level questions allowing them

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to discover the answer as a group. Feel free to add or deletequestions to suit the needs of your class. Answers are includedin the answer key of this guide.

DESCRIPTION OF BLACKLINE MASTERS

Blackline Master #1, Pre-Test, is an assessment tool intendedto gauge student comprehension of the objectives prior to par-ticipating in the program.

Blackline Master #2, Post-Test, is an assessment tool to beadministered after viewing the program and completing addi-tional activities. The results of this assessment can be comparedto the results of Pre-Test to determine the change in studentcomprehension before and after participation in this lesson.

Blackline Master #3, Discussion Questions, can be includedbefore viewing the program to help assess the students’ com-prehension and misgivings before beginning the lesson. Givethem to the whole class or to small groups to research andreport back to the class.

Blackline Master #4, Video Quiz, is intended to reinforce thekey concepts of the program immediately following the presen-tation of the program. The quiz can be used as a tool to outlinesalient points before viewing the program

Blackline Master #5, Vocabulary List, will reinforce wordsused within the program and provide related vocabulary notused in the program. From the list you may have students lookup words to define. They may also write essays, poetry, or shortstories.

Blackline Master #6, Word Search #1, is a fun way to learnvocabulary.

Blackline Master #7, Word Search #2, is another fun way tolearn vocabulary.

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Blackline Master #8, Crossword Puzzle #1, is a fun way tolearn vocabulary.

Blackline Master #9, Crossword Puzzle #2, is a fun way tolearn vocabulary.

Blackline Master #10, Fact Sheet Quiz, offers trivia alongwith website links to further information that kids may use todevelop a game show.

Blackline Master #11. Experiment #1: Build a Watershed,ties together the elements of watersheds and the water cycle.Soil may dissolve or erode into the "lake" so you may wish toadd a buffer like a piece of carpet (wetland) at the water's edge.

Blackline Master #12, Experiment #2: Follow the Water, isa hands-on project to work on observational skills.

Blackline Master #13, Experiment #3: Pollute or Dilute?,This experiment shows the difficulty of ridding water of pollu-tion.

Blackline Master #14, Experiment #4: Irrigation Methods,develops junior farmers who must decide the best way to irri-gate crops. You may need to increase or decrease the amount ofdaily water. The actual amount is not critical as long as it is thesame for each set of plants.

Blackline Master #15. Experiment #5: Water Meter Reader,Part 1, introduces methods of measuring water amounts.Measure and cut out boxes to illustrate the size of a cubic footand a cubic meter.

Blackline Master #16. Experiment #5: Water Meter Reader,Part 2, gives practice in reading a water meter to determineusage.

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Blackline Master #17, Experiment #6: Water Wheel, Part 1,allows students to be artistic in expressing water conservationconcepts.

Blackline Master #18, Experiment #6: Water Wheel, Part 2,produces a guide that can be used at home to conserve water.

Blackline Master #19, Experiment #7: Oil and Water, focus-es on the threat of oil spills and steps taken to clean them up.

Blackline Master #20, Experiment #8: Groundwater, simplyand clearly demonstrates the concept that water is in theground.

Blackline Master #21, Experiment #9: Walk the Water, is anature walk to get students outside where they can apply whatthey've learned about water quality.

Blackline Master #22, Additional Internet Sites, goes furtherthan the sites listed in Fact Sheet Quiz. It provides a large num-ber of links, downloadable projects, lesson plans, and fun activ-ities for students. Preview all Internet sites before recommend-ing them to students to be certain they are appropriate for yourintended use.

ANSWER KEY

Blackline Master #1, Pre-Test1. Conserving water means to not waste it or unnecessarily dirtyit so that more clean water is available.2. Water gets polluted by runoff that carries sediment, fertiliz-ers, pesticides, litter, trash, oil, and chemicals that leak fromvehicles. It is also polluted by waste from factories or directlyfrom things that people dump into it.3. A wetland is a place that is sometimes covered with waterand other times it is dry.4. People run water while brushing their teeth or waiting for itto heat up. People over-water their lawns, overlook leaky pipes;take baths instead of showers; and wash clothes and dishes

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when the load is not full.5. Water down the sink drain goes to a water treatment plant, orinto a septic tank to treat it.6. Runoff into storm drains often goes directly to creeks andrivers and then into lakes or oceans.7. A watershed is an area where all water that drains goes intoone spot such as a stream, river, or lake.8. If all water got polluted, we would have to spend enormousamounts of money, time, and energy to clean it; otherwise, lifewould not continue as we know it.9. Water is found in oceans, lakes, glaciers, streams, ponds,creeks, rivers, aquifers, wells, clouds, rain, snow, sleet, hail, andeverywhere in the air as vapor. Note that vapor may also referto visible clouds but in this program it signifies invisible wateras a gas.10. An ecosystem is a community where all living creaturesshare water and resources and depend on each other for sur-vival.

Blackline Master #2, Post-Test1. Point-source pollution starts at one obvious location. Non-pointsource pollution starts at so many different locations thatit's hard to figure all of them out.2. Turbid water makes it hard for fish to breathe, and hard forplants to get sunlight.3. It's everyone's job to protect water resources.4. In an ecosystem, plants pull water out of the ground. Theirleaves allow the water to transpire and eventually form cloudsand precipitation. When the precipitation falls to the ground, allliving creatures can get fresh water.5. Runoff and erosion can be reduced by leaving lots of areasnatural with grass, trees, and bushes, or by planting more ofthese areas so that water can soak into the ground slowly.6. Simple water conservation tips are: don't run water more thanyou need; keep a bottle of chilled water in the refrigerator; don'tspray a lawn on a windy day; shorten your showers; and putcovers over swimming pools to reduce evaporation.7. Watersheds are found everywhere that there is land.

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8. Water pollution is hard to clean up because many things mixthoroughly with water and they cannot be mechanically sepa-rated.9. No. No new water can be made. We can only make it reap-pear from other forms, such as vapor or ice.10. Wastewater is water that we use that has to be cleaned ortreated before it can go back into a river or lake.

Blackline Master #3, Discussion Questions1. We use water for drinking, growing food, bathing, cleaning,cooking, travel, recreation, and producing just about everymaterial we use.2. Water gets polluted by runoff that carries sediment, fertiliz-ers, pesticides, litter, trash, oil, and chemicals that leak fromvehicles. It is also polluted by waste from factories or directlyfrom things that people dump into it.3. Simple water conservation tips are: don't run water more thanyou need; keep a bottle of chilled water in the refrigerator; don'tspray a lawn on a windy day; shorten your showers; and putcovers over swimming pools to reduce evaporation.4. In a watershed, all water flows downhill to end up in a river,or lake, or body of water.5. We get clean water from precipitation that fills lakes andreservoirs or restores aquifers. Some communities have facto-ries that take salt out of saltwater to make it potable.6. Estuaries are where fresh river water mixes with salty oceanwater. A wetland is simply an area that is sometimes wet andsometimes dry. A wetland may be in an estuary but it does nothave to be.7. Without clean water, many organisms would perish. Thosesurviving would be forced to seek what few sources of waterremain. Eventually life as we know it would end.8. Compost piles help water quality by reducing the amount ofleaves and waste that must be transported and deposited intolandfills. When spread on our lawns, compost reduces evapora-tion, and helps the lawn retain nutrients so that fertilizers don'thave to be applied that may runoff into rivers.

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9. Wastewater is any water that we use that needs to be cleanedbefore we use it again. Polluted water is water that is not heal-thy because there are things in it that should not be in it.Wastewater is normal, but pollution can be more easily reduced.Polluted water happens when people don't think, plan, or careabout keeping water clean.10. All fruits, vegetables, fish, meats, and bread have water inthem. Nearly any food you think of has water in it.

Blackline Master #4, Video Quiz1. False. Water pollution starts at hundreds of different sources,including our homes.2. False. Water is required by all living creatures.3. True4. True5. False. Water pollution may become diluted but it never real-ly goes away unless we take the effort to treat the water andclean it.6. False. Watersheds are anywhere on land.7. True8. True9. True10. True

Blackline Master #6, Word Search #1Blackline Master #7, Word Search #2

Blackline Master #8, Crossword Puzzle #1Across Down

1. phase 2. environment6. liquid 3. moisutre7. acid rain 4. dissolve8. pollution 5. watershed

10. runoff 9. turbid12. compost 11. flood

Blackline Master #9, Crossword Puzzle #2Across Down2. ecosystem 1. point source4. pesticide 3. terrarium8. vapor 5. conserve11. estuary 6. watershed12. solvent 7. recycle

9. litter10. habitat

Blackline Master #10, Fact Sheet Quiz1. d 2. b 3. e 4. a 5. c

Blackline Master #11, Experiment #1: Build a Watershed

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1. The ocean water seeps into the soil and sand to create a watertable.2. Water runs downhill from the mountains.3. Erosion happens when water is sprayed too fast.4. Food coloring also runs off of the mountain and part of itsoaks into the soil.5. More water makes the food coloring travel farther downhilltoward the grass and ocean.6. Food coloring in the lake mixes with the groundwater andsome of it ends up mixing with the ocean water.7. The grass helps to hold the soil in place and slow the move-ment of pollutants downhill.

Blackline Master #12, Experiment #2: Follow the Water1. The most percolation will likely be on a flat lawn.2. The fastest runoff will likely be in a road drainage area.3. Water tends to puddle and sit in low spots of flat roads orpavement.4. If gutters are clogged, the water comes off of the roof inmany areas rather than just one.5. After entering the storm drain, the water rushes away, likelyto a river.6. Answers will vary.

Blackline Master #13, Experiment #3: Pollute or Dilute? 1. The water is darkened (polluted) by the food coloring.2. Pollutants will spread once they get into water.3. The water may be a little cleaner.4. Answers will vary.5. Even though it may be hard to see, not all of the food color-ing is gone.6. Answers will vary. This method can remove detectibleamounts of food coloring but it would take an enormousamount of water.

Blackline Master #14, Experiment #4: Irrigation Methods

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1. The plants in the pan with the cup should be healthier.2. Pouring water into the cup was probably easier and requiredless energy.3. Spraying the water wastes it since it is harder to get it all ontothe soil. A little water always remains in the sprayer.4. Spraying may erode the soil if done too close and too fast.The drip may also erode the soil if the water drips too fast in thesame spot.5. The spray method is easier if water comes from an aquiferbecause you don't have to run pipes on the ground to get thewater close to each plant. The drip method saves water, espe-cially in windy areas because less water is wasted in the air.6. If the farmer does not have an aquifer, he or she would haveto use a pump to spray water and that takes energy. Drip irriga-tion is expensive at first because you have to run pipes or hosesthroughout the area to get the water close to the plants.

Blackline Master #15, Experiment #5: Water Meter Read-er, Part 11. Water can be measured by size because the same volume ofwater generally takes up the same amount of space. Water isnon-compressible.2. Water can be measured also by weight.

Blackline Master #16, Experiment #5: Water Meter Reader,Part 21. 205,8722. 941,6063. 621,050

Blackline Master #19, Experiment #7: Oil and Water1. The oil never stays mixed. It separates from the water.2. The oil is less dense (lighter) than the water.3. Answers will vary.4. Answers will vary, but the cloth and towel should be helpful.5. Answers will vary.6. Soap will break down the oil.7. The water can be very nearly cleaned in the best circum-

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stances. In real life it is difficult.8. The oil could be burned off, but that creates air pollution.

Blackline Master #20, Experiment #8: Groundwater1. Water droplets (condensation)2. It came from the soil.3. Water is in the ground, in soil.4. The moisture is often drawn upward through capillarity or itmay evaporate when near the surface.

EXTENDED LEARNING ACTIVITIES

• Invite a plumber to talk about water usage in homes and howpipes are important. The plumber can show the students howthe school gets water and how the water leaves the building.

• A field trip to a nearby National Weather Service office willintroduce the students to people who focus on water's role inweather and climate. Aside from forecasters, many officesemploy a hydrologist.

• Visit a water treatment plant to learn what happens to waste-water.

• Invite a speaker from the Coast Guard or other local organi-zation dedicated to protecting waterways.

• Take a field trip to a hydroelectric dam or to a lock and damto witness how we harness water to help us.

• Invite a local TV weather forecaster to talk about annual pre-cipitation, and the results of too much or too little precipitation.

• Invite a lifeguard to present a talk on water safety.

SCRIPT OF NARRATION16

What would the world be like without water? Boring. Dry. Hardto live in. There would be no clouds, no rain, no snow, nooceans, and nothing to come out of the faucet. Water plays somany roles in helping all people, creatures, plants, and the envi-ronment stay healthy. It gives us a way to travel and to transportfood and clothing. It also lets us have fun on a lake, skiing onsnow, or even making music in glasses filled with water. Watermakes beautiful things in the sky, falling from rocks, or risingfrom fountains that people build.

Water is everywhere from the air to the ground to underground.The cotton in our clothes needs water to grow. Fruits and veg-etables are filled with water. Animals need water as they eatplants that grow with water. Of course, fish need water. Notonly do we need water, but there is a lot of water inside of us.We see it when we sweat. When we prepare food to eat, we usewater. The foods we eat have water in them. When we clean up,we use water. Water is used in printing, painting, pottery, andpouring cement!

Moving water is used to make electricity. Water can cool downa car engine or cool you down in the hot summer. It can maketremendous snowstorms or powerful storms that carry rainacross the oceans. For all the water in different places overEarth, it is recycled by nature and shared across the planet.Many of us don't think much about water because it's alwaysthere, but if water supplies get low, we notice. It becomes hard-er to live and be clean and comfortable.

Water ties together many lives and systems on Earth. Whenthese lives and systems in one community share and recyclethings, we call it an ecosystem. An ecosystem can be small likea park, or it can be large like a city, forest, or state. You canbuild your own ecosystem in a jar. That's called a terrarium. Ina large ecosystem, every living plant, tree, fish, insect, animal,and human shares water. When we are done with water, it can

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float into the air where it is carried away. It may form clouds,or it may go into a river, lake or ocean, or just into the ground.

In streams and rivers, water flows great distances. Smallstreams feed bigger streams. Bigger streams feed rivers, andrivers become bigger as they deliver water to the oceans. Lookat a map of rivers in the state of Iowa. There are dozens ofthem! On a map of the United States, it's harder to see the littlerivers but the big ones seem to all be connected. On the Internet,you find maps showing that many rivers are connected in whatwe call a watershed. There are many large watersheds in theUnited States but there are hundreds of smaller watersheds inthe states and cities. A watershed is just a place where waterdrains to one spot. You can also say it is a shed that holds water.

A lake is a watershed. Precipitation will runoff and drain intocreeks and rivers that are all in a watershed. Everybody lives ina watershed.

Many large watersheds end in estuaries, where the fresh waterenters the oceans and mixes with salt water. Estuaries are hometo a wide variety of animals, fish, insects, and plants thatdepend on good water quality. Anyplace inside the watershed,you may also have a wetland, where the ground is sometimeswet, and other times dry. Both estuaries and wetlands are veryimportant in having an ecosystem with healthy fish and animalsand clean water.

Since all water is shared on Earth, if it gets polluted, there canbe big problems. One of the tricky things about water pollutionis that you can't always see it. Clear water can be polluted ifthere are chemicals or poisons in it. Water runoff from a heavyrain can be too warm for fish in a river and that's a kind of pol-lution too. Water pollution happens whenever the water is nothealthy.

Ships sometimes spill oil and that kills fish, dirties the water,

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and may cost millions of dollars to clean up. If you have evermixed oil and water, then you know how hard it is to separatethem. In some cities, there are factories that put oil or chemicalsinto the water by mistake. Even smokestacks make pollutionthat rises into the sky and is washed back to the ground in rain.That rain is sometimes called acid rain and it harms plants andthe animals that eat the plants.

When a big factory puts a lot of pollution or waste into rivers orlakes, that is pollution from one point, or point source pollution,but factories are not the only polluters on the planet. You mightguess that farms make a lot of pollution from fertilizers, pesti-cides, or waste from animals that washes away. But farms arenot the only polluters either.

Water polluters are you and me, and our friends and families.We don't do it on purpose but it happens a lot. The reason whyis that there are so many of us and we are scattered all over theworld at different points. The pollution we produce is callednon-point source pollution because it doesn't start at just onepoint.

Our cars and trucks leak oil that gets washed away. Boatengines also can leak oil. When we add fertilizer or weed killerto our lawns, that is washed away too. Some people dump oldpaint and chemicals down the drain and that goes to the rivers.Most of the time we pollute and threaten our water supply bymistake. People often don't think when they clean around theirhomes and businesses that everything that washes away goesinto a drain, then to a river. It disappears from where we see itbut it always goes somewhere else.

Even if we don't pollute water, the water we use that needs tobe cleaned later is called wastewater. It's impossible to live andnot make wastewater and pollution. We just need to try to notmake so much. Many things we put into water will slowly breakup but they are still there. Anything that sits in water longenough will dissolve because water is the universal solvent. But

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it can't clean itself.

Some communities have water treatment plants that clean thewastewater from our homes. If there is too much dirty water,then the water treatment plants can't keep up and there wouldbe less clean water for us to use.

There are other things we do that waste perfectly clean water.Some of us leave the water running while we brush our teeth.Others of us spray our lawns on windy days when the wind car-ries the water away. Others let the water run for a long time,waiting for it to warm up or cool down. Leaky pipes wastewater, too.

There are many ways you and I can help to conserve water andreduce water pollution.

• Clean up litter so that it does not get washed into rivers andlakes.• Save poisonous or hazardous chemicals and take them to acollection center.• Use natural items like baking soda or vinegar to clean, insteadof a chemical cleaner.• Turn downspouts so that the water soaks into the groundinstead of running off onto pavement.• Adopt a local stream and help to keep it clean.• Plant trees and bushes around your home that don't need extrawatering.• Use a car wash that recycles water.• Recycle metal, paper, plastic, and glass so that factories don'thave to use water to create more of them.• If you have a dishwasher, don't run it until it is full.• Shower instead of taking baths.• Install showers and faucets that use less water.• Make sure there are no leaky pipes where you live.• Reuse water from the sink for watering plants or rinsing dirtydishes.• Plant grass or ground cover to keep soil from washing into

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creeks and streams.• Clean up after your pet and flush the waste down the toilet.• Sweep up litter and dirt on your sidewalk instead of sprayingit away with a hose.• Put compost around bushes and plants to keep the soil fromlosing moisture.• Make a compost pile to recycle leaves, grass clippings, andfruits and vegetables.• Ride your bike or walk for short trips instead of riding in a car.• Test the water quality in local streams and lakes.• Organize a lake or beach cleanup to protect the fish and ani-mals.• Before you go swimming, use the restroom.• Use fences to block sand and soil from washing away, espe-cially at building sites.

Every person can do a small part in keeping our water supplyhealthy. When we use water, we can't be careless. Some peopledon't realize that soil will run off in heavy rain or flooding. Thatcan dirty the water and make it turbid and harder for fish tobreathe. Other people don't know that pollution they put into ariver can go hundreds of miles, or kilometers, and take yearsand years to clean up.

The amount of water on Earth does not change and that meansas more and more people use it, we have to plan better. We alsohave to respect the power of water when we are around it andduring dangerous floods. Learning how to swim and knowingwater safety rules will make you safer while having fun.

Nature does a good job of cleaning water in the ground and inthe air when it changes phase from liquid to water vapor to icecrystals. But we have to help, too. Even while most of our plan-et is covered with water, most of that water is salty and we can'tdrink it. Water needs to be available and clean, not just for peo-ple, but for trees, plants, fish, animals and all living creatures inan ecosystem.Water is all around us, above our heads, under our feet, in our

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bodies, and in the foods we eat.

Now that you are Water Smart, let's take a quiz. True or False:

Number one. Factories are the only water polluters.Number two. We could live without water.Number three. Wetlands are sometimes dry.Number four. Lawn fertilizers can pollute water.Number five. Water pollution will go away by itself.Number six. Watersheds are only in the mountains.Number seven. Rain can carry pollution to the ground.Number eight. A compost pile helps to save water.Number nine. Polluted water is dangerous to ecosystems.Number ten. Water is in the ground, and in the air.

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