Wally the Waterdrop explains what that the water we deal with in everday life, from our drains to the street runoff that collects at curb drains and what it takes to clean the water before it is reintroduced into the watertable on a website put together by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District entitled Where does it go.With the public becoming increasingly aware of the concerns attributed to potable water, even in industrialized nations such as the United States. a public consciousness should begin to express itself through human migration patterns. The low cost of land in the Southwest may be becoming offset by the realization that the land does not lend itself to human habitation and requires massive artificial infrastructure to force habitation. This lends itself not only to the "where does it go" mindset which is important if only because another part of the conversation is "where does it come from". When one realizes that "it" is coming from where "it" is going to I can only hope that the import of water becomes apparent. Not that it is a perfectly closed loop system, water evaporates and of course rain can replenish some bodies of water, but ground source (aquifers) must be monitored and not over utilized. We are not the only critters who require that ground water to live.
There is a agenda to protect the America's largest bodies of freshwater by the states and provinces that surround it, not in order to create a monopolized control, but to protect the systems already in place that millions of people depend upon for survival and with it some interesting notions on how to protect our freshwater and adjacent flora/fauna are already becoming public. Whether to stem invasive specie exposure, control/halt pollution or to find ways to use the open areas of the lake as a power generating resource to supplement a region of the country that relies heavily on coal power generation. The agenda is known as the Great Lakes Basin Compact and includes the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin along with the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Article I of the compact describes what I like to think of as regionalism at it's finest.
So what does this mean to you? Well, whatever you want it to. It would be great if everyone was concerned enough with regards to their global impact to want to find out if they are creating an undue burden on others. Maybe it would be a good idea to discover the effort that goes into protecting what many take for granted and perhaps, if possible, find ways to alleviate any unnecessary waste or at the very least be aware enough to actively help others help themselves. Water is a precious commodity, is being constantly fought over either economically, legislatively or physically, and is vitally important to those whose fates (or their city's fates) are intimately intertwined with their water's well being.
