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| Source: wec.ufl.edu |
Living in Florida, we have many concerns. One of which may not be as obvious as you would think. Yes, we are surrounded by water and have rain almost every day during the summer months. But, our supply of fresh water is rather limited. This is mostly due to our large population causing a greater demand for more water. Floridian's demand for fresh water is about 8 billion gallons of water per day. The three main sources of fresh water come from ground water, springs, and reclaimed water. If you live in a rural area, you may get your water supply from a well that is drilled several feet into the ground or from a nearby pond. In urban areas, our water comes from water treatment plants.
One of the largest sources for fresh water in Florida is aquifers. They provide almost all of our drinking water. The Floridan Aquifer is the largest aquifer in the state, supplying the northern part of the state, most of the inland areas, and the majority of the western part of the state. Surficial aquifers are generally less than one hundred feet deep and are often contaminated by saltwater and other pollutants. Surficial aquifers (there are a few different ones) mainly run along the eastern and southern shorelines of Florida.
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| Source: waterindustry.org |
In the Tampa Bay area, we have a desalination plant that purifies saltwater from the ocean to provide our area with about twenty-five million gallons of drinking water per day, which is only about ten percent of what we use. It uses reverse osmosis to seperate the saltwater from the freshwater. Reverse osmosis is a process that forcefully pushes saltwater through a filter with holes small enough to remove the salt, resulting in freshwater.
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| Source: isikora.umwblogs.org |
The Florida wetlands and Everglades also account for a large amount of the state's freshwater. 90% of the state's wetland area is actually freshwater. The water found in these places, however, is mostly used for animal and plant habitat. We do not use the water found here as our fresh water supply.
We need to find ways to preserve our supply of fresh water in Florida. Luckily, the state government has been focusing on this for years. State legislature has put the Florida's Growth Management Act in place to develop a procedure for projecting our water supply. The Water Protection and Sustainability Program has also been put in place to certify the state is evaluating area needs for water and ensuring those needs are being met.
References:
Miller, G. Tyler, Scott Spoolman, and Daniel D. Chiras. Environmental Science. 12th ed. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.
http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/guide/aquifers.html
http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/guide/drinking.html
http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1342/
www.dca.state.fl.us/fdcp/DCP/WaterSupplyPlanning/index.cfm
www.tampabaywater.org/facilities/desalination_plant/index.aspx
