Water Facts
“All the water that will ever be is, right now.”
—National Geographic, 1993
Reasons to Drink Water
Without oil you can't drive, but without water you die.
Water is absolutely essential to the human body’s survival. A person can live for about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
Water helps to maintain healthy body weight by increasing metabolism and regulating appetite.
Water leads to increased energy levels. The most common cause of daytime fatigue is actually mild dehydration.
Drinking adequate amounts of water can decrease the risk of certain types of cancers, including colon cancer, bladder cancer, and breast cancer.
For a majority of sufferers, drinking water can significantly reduce joint and/or back pain.
Water leads to overall greater health by flushing out wastes and bacteria that can cause disease.
Water can prevent and alleviate headaches.
Water naturally moisturizes skin and ensures proper cellular formation underneath layers of skin to give it a healthy, glowing appearance.
Water aids in the digestion process and prevents constipation.
Water is the primary mode of transportation for all nutrients in the body and is essential for proper circulation.
Most of the earth's surface consists of water; there is much more water than there is land.
2. Water can not only be found on the surface, but also in the ground and in the air.
3. There is the same amount of water on earth as there was when the earth was formed. The water that came from your faucet could contain molecules that Neanderthals drank…
4. The overall amount of water on our planet has remained the same for two billion years.
5. There are two kinds of water; salt water and freshwater. Salt water contains great amounts of salt, whereas freshwater has a dissolved salt concentration of less than 1%. Only freshwater can be applied as drinking water.
6. Water consists of three atoms, 2 Hydrogen atoms and an Oxygen atom, that are bond together due to electrical charges.
7. The weight of a water molecule depends on the number of moles present, as it is 18 grams per mole.
8. Water moves around the earth in a water cycle. The water cycle has five parts: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration and surface run-off.
9. In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about 2 weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.
10. Groundwater can take a human lifetime just to traverse a mile.
11. Most of the earth's surface water is permanently frozen or salty.
12. Water regulates the earth's temperature.
13. Water freezes at zero degrees Celcius.
14. Water vaporizes at a hundred degrees Celcius.
15. Water is the only substance that is found naturally on earth in three forms: liquid, gas, solid.
16. If water changes phase its physical appearance changes due to parting of water molecules. In the solid phase the water molecules are close together and in the gaseous phase they are the furthest apart.
17. Frozen water is 9% lighter than water, which is why ice floats on water.
18. A litre of water weighs 1.01 kilograms.
19. It doesn't take much salt to make water "salty." If one-thousandth (or more) of the weight of water is from salt, then the water is "saline."
20. Saline water can be desalinated for use as drinking water by going through a process to remove the salt from the water.
21. When water contains a lot of calcium and magnesium, it is called hard water. Hard water is not suited for all purposes water is normally used for.
22. To determine water quality certified agencies take samples that are tested in a laboratory. The samples are tested on various factors, to determine if they suffice water quality standards.
23. Each country has its own water quality standards that determine to which degree water should be purified, depending on the purpose it will be used for.
About water quantities:
1. As oceans are very wide and there are multiple to be found on earth, oceans store most of the earth's water. This is apparently 97% of the total amount of water on earth, 2% of which is frozen.
2. 80% of the earth's water is surface water. The other 20% is either ground water or atmospheric water vapour.
3. Of all the water on earth, only 2,5% is fresh water. Fresh water is either groundwater (0,5%), or readily accessible water in lakes, streams, rivers, etc. (0,01%).
4. If all the world's water were fit into a gallon jug, the fresh water available for us to use would equal only about one tablespoon.
5. Over 90% of the world's supply of fresh water is located in Antarctica.
6. Less than 1% of the water supply on earth can be used as drinking water.
7. The earth's total amount of water has a volume of about 344 million cubic miles.
· 315 million cubic miles is seawater.
· 9 million cubic miles is groundwater in aquifers.
· 7 million cubic miles is frozen in polar ice caps.
· 53,000 cubic miles of water pass through the planet's lakes and streams.
· 4,000 cubic miles of water is atmospheric moisture.
· 3,400 cubic miles of water are locked within the bodies of living things.
8. Approximately 66% of the human body consists of water. Water exists within all our organs and it is transported throughout our body to assist physical functions.
9. The total amount of water in the body of an average adult is 37 litres.
10. Human brains are 75% water.
11. Human bones are 25% water.
12. Human blood is 83% water.
13. 75% of a chicken is water.
14. 80% of a pineapple is water.
15. 95% of a tomato is water.
16. 70% of an elephant is water.
17. Each day the sun evaporates a trillion tons of water.
18. A single tree will give off 265 liters (70 gallons) of water per day in evaporation.
19. An acre of corn will give off 15,000 litres (4,000 gallons) of water per day in evaporation.
20. A small drip from a faucet can waste as much as 75 litres of water a day.
21. The amount of water we deliver on a hot summer day, 308 million litres (80 million gallons), could fill 1.28 billion cups of coffee.
About water & health:
1. A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water. If a human does not absorb enough water dehydration is the result.
2. A person must consume 2 litres of water daily to live healthily. Humans drink an average of 75.000 litres of water throughout their life.
3. Humans cannot drink salt water.
4. More than 2 billion people on earth do not have a safe supply of water.
5. Water regulates the temperature of the human body. If you have caught a fever you should drink lots of water.
6. Water removes waste from the human body.
7. You should never drink water straight from a lake or river, as it can be damaging to your health.
8. If you live in an old house with lead pipelines you could get health problems. Due to weathering of the pipelines lead can end up in your tap water.
9. Your drinking water may be fluoridated to help prevent dental cavities.
10. Water leaves the stomach five minutes after consumption.
11. Centres for Disease Control receive notification of more than 4,000 cases per year of illness due to drinking water contamination.
12. A quarter of the world's population is without safe drinking water.
13. Water can cause serious health damage when it is contaminated by bacteria and other microrganisms.
14. In most cities and towns, drinking water from the tap is treated so that people don't get sick with diseases such as cholera and typhoid, which are caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites found naturally in the water.
About water use and saving water:
1. Humans use more and more water each year.
2. Americans use five times the amount of water that Europeans use.
3. Humans daily use about 190 litres (50 gallons) of water.
4. A person pays about 25 cents for water use on a daily basis.
5. Two thirds of the water used in a home is used in the bathroom.
6. To flush a toilet we use 7.5 to 26.5 litres (2 to 7 gallons) of water.
7. In a five-minute shower we use 95 to 190 litres (25 to 50 gallons) of water.
8. To brush your teeth you use 7.5 litres (2 gallons) of water.
9. For an automatic dishwasher 35 to 45 litres (9 to 12 gallons) of water is used.
10. Saving a bottle of cold water in the fridge is better that taking it from the tap, because it saves time and water.
11. While brushing your teeth, instead of leaving the tap running, you should fill up a glass to rinse your mouth.
12. Baths use less water than a typical shower. Soaking in a partially filled tub will use less water than a short shower.
13. The average person spends less than 1 % of his or her total personal expenditure dollars for water, wastewater, and water disposal services.
14. Less than 1% of the water treated by public water systems is used for drinking and cooking.
15. Bottled water can be up to 1000 times more expensive than tap water and it may not be as safe.
16. Today, at least 400 million people live in regions with severe water shortages.
About water pollution and related problems:
1. Humans largely influence the factors that determine water quality, as they depose off their waste in water and add all kinds of substances and contaminants that are not naturally present. We now know more than 70.000 water pollutants.
2. About 450 cubic kilometres of wastewater are carried into coastal areas by rivers and streams every year. These pollution loads require an additional 6,000 cubic kilometres of freshwater to dilute the pollution. This amount equals to two-thirds of the world's total stable run-off.
3. Public water supplies must meet or exceed certain standards. The kind of standards that are used differ for each country. Many public water supplies consistently supply water that is much better than the minimum standards.
4. Four litres (1 gallon) of gasoline can contaminate approximately 2.8 million litres (750,000 gallons) of water.
5. Groundwater supplies serve about 80% of the population, whereas up to 4% of usable groundwater is already polluted.
6. There are 12,000 different toxic chemical compounds in industrial use today, and more than 500 new chemicals are developed each year.
7. Over 70,000 different water contaminants have been identified.
8. Each day almost 10,000 children under the age of 5 in Third World countries die as a result of illnesses contracted by use of impure water.
9. Today, drinking water meets over a hundred different standards for drinking water quality.
10. The principal sources of contamination are associated with the post World War II chemical age.
11. If all new sources of contamination could be eliminated, in 10 years, 98% of all available groundwater would then be free of pollution.
12. Most of the world's people must walk at least 3 hours to fetch water.
13. Freshwater animals are disappearing five times faster than land animals.
About water as a raw material:
1. It takes 5,680 litres (1,500 gallons) of water to process one barrel of beer.
2. It takes 450 litres (120 gallons) of water to produce one egg.
3. To process one chicken we need 44 litres (11.6 gallons) of water.
4. To process one can of fruit or vegetables we need 35 litres (9.3 gallons) of water.
5. About 25,700 litres (6,800 gallons) of water is required to grow a day's food for a family of four.
6. It takes 7,000 litres (1,850 gallons) of water to refine one barrel of crude oil.
7. To manufacture new cars 148,000 litres (39,000 gallons) of water are used per car.
Water Facts: Did you know...
1.1 billion people lack access to an improved water supply - approximately one in six people on earth.
2.6 billion people in the world lack access to improved sanitation.
Less than 1% of the world's fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.
A person can live weeks without food, but only days without water.
A person needs 4 to 5 gallons of water per day to survive.
The average American individual uses 100 to 176 gallons of water at home each day. (6, 7)The average African family uses about 5 gallons of water each day.
Millions of women and children spend several hours a day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources.
Water systems fail at a rate of 50% or higher.
Every $1 spent on water and sanitation creates on average another $8 in costs averted and productivity gained.
Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water live on less $2 a day.
Poor people living in the slums often pay 5-10 times more for per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city.
Water-Related Disease Facts: Did you know . . .
Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
For children under age five, water-related diseases are the leading cause of death.
At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease.
1.8 million children die each year from diarrhea – 4,900 deaths each day.
No intervention has greater overall impact upon national development and public health than the provision of safe drinking water and the proper disposal of human waste.
Human health improvements are influenced not only by the use of clean water, but also by personal hygiene habits and the use of sanitation facilities.
Close to half of all people in developing countries are suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
75 % of the earth is covered with water.
97 % of earth’s water is in the oceans. Only 3 % of the earth’s water can be used as drinking water. 75 % of the world’s fresh water is frozen in the polar ice caps.
Although a person can live without food for more than a month, a person can only live without water for approximately one week.
The average person in the United States uses 80 to 100 gallons of water each day. During medieval times a person used only 5 gallons per day.
About 1.2 billion gallons of potable water are used in New Jersey each day.
87 % of New Jersey’s population obtains its drinking water from a public water system and 13 % from private residential wells.
It takes 2 gallons to brush your teeth, 2 to 7 gallons to flush a toilet, and 25 to 50 gallons to take a shower.
It takes about 1 gallon of water to process a quarter pound of hamburger.
It takes 2,072 gallons of water to make four new tires.
Sources of water pollution include: oil spills, fertilizer and agricultural run-off, sewage, stormwater, and industrial wastes.
Ancient Egyptians treated water by siphoning water out of the top of huge jars after allowing the muddy water from the Nile River to settle.
Hippocrates, known as the father of medicine, directed people in Greece to boil and strain water before drinking it.
In the 1950’s scientists began to suspect that water might carry diseases. Although earlier treatment of water could make the water safer, it was mainly done to improve the taste, smell or looks of the water.
The first United States water plant with filters was built in 1872 in Poughkeepsie, New York.
In Altona, Germany in 1892, the water from the Elbe River filtered before drinking. At the time, hundreds of people from nearby Hamburg (which did not filter their water) died from cholera. The citizens of Altona were untouched by this waterborne disease.
In 1908, Jersey City, New Jersey and Chicago, Illinois were the first water supplies to be chlorinated in the United States.
The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1974 represents the first time that public drinking water supplies were protected on a federal (national) level in the United States. Amendments were made to the SDWA in 1986 and 1996.
New Jersey Legislature approved the New Jersey Safe Drinking Water Act, which authorized the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to assume primacy and enforcement responsibility for the Federal Safe Drinking Water Program.
One gallon of water is equal to 3.785 liters of water.
One cubic foot of water is equal to 7.48 gallons of water.
Water boils at 212o Fahrenheit or 100o Celsius.
Water freezes at 32o Fahrenheit or 0o Celsius.
There have been listed some 1500 substances as pollutants in freshwater ecosystems, and each of them occurs in the following types of freshwater pollutants. Here is a generalized list of them:
Acids & alkalis
Anions
Detergents
Domestic sewage and farm manures
Food processing wastes (including processes taking place on the farm)
Gases (e.g. chlorine, ammonia)
Heat
Metals (e.g. cadmium, lead, mercury)
Nutrients (especially phosphates, nitrates)
Oil and oil dispersants
Organic toxic wastes (e.g. formaldehyde, phenols)
Pathogens
Pesticides
Polychlorinated biphenyls
Radionuclides
The different pollutants exert different problems to different freshwater waterways. Mostly expressed in the amount of oxygen that is available for fish and other species. This sometimes results in habitat destruction and extinction of local populations
Interesting and Useful Water Facts
Roughly 70 percent of an adult’s body is made up of water.
At birth, water accounts for approximately 80 percent of an infant’s body weight.
A healthy person can drink about three gallons (48 cups) of water per day.
Drinking too much water too quickly can lead to water intoxication. Water intoxication occurs when water dilutes the sodium level in the bloodstream and causes an imbalance of water in the brain.
Water intoxication is most likely to occur during periods of intense athletic performance.
While the daily recommended amount of water is eight cups per day, not all of this water must be consumed in the liquid form. Nearly every food or drink item provides some water to the body.
Soft drinks, coffee, and tea, while made up almost entirely of water, also contain caffeine. Caffeine can act as a mild diuretic, preventing water from traveling to necessary locations in the body.
Pure water (solely hydrogen and oxygen atoms) has a neutral pH of 7, which is neither acidic nor basic.
Water dissolves more substances than any other liquid. Wherever it travels, water carries chemicals, minerals, and nutrients with it.
Somewhere between 70 and 75 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water.
Much more fresh water is stored under the ground in aquifers than on the earth’s surface.
The earth is a closed system, similar to a terrarium, meaning that it rarely loses or gains extra matter. The same water that existed on the earth millions of years ago is still present today.
The total amount of water on the earth is about 326 million cubic miles of water.
Of all the water on the earth, humans can used only about three tenths of a percent of this water. Such usable water is found in groundwater aquifers, rivers, and freshwater lakes.
The United States uses about 346,000 million gallons of fresh water every day.
The United States uses nearly 80 percent of its water for irrigation and thermoelectric power.
The average person in the United States uses anywhere from 80-100 gallons of water per day. Flushing the toilet actually takes up the largest amount of this water.
Approximately 85 percent of U.S. residents receive their water from public water facilities. The remaining 15 percent supply their own water from private wells or other sources.
By the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has lost over 1 percent of its total water amount.
The weight a person loses directly after intense physical activity is weight from water, not fat.
Reasons to Use a Water Filter
In order to capitalize on the health benefits of water, it is essential to draw from a clean source of water.
Drinking impure, contaminated water is the leading cause of epidemic disease in developing countries.
There are more than 2100 known drinking water contaminants that may be present in tap water, including several known poisons.
Bottled water does not offer a viable alternative to tap water.
Municipal water treatment facilities cannot always control for the outbreak of dangerous bacterial contaminants in tap water.
The only way to ensure pure, contaminant-free drinking water is through the use of a point-of-use filtration system.
Several types of cancer can be attributed to the presence of toxic materials in drinking water.
Clean, healthy drinking water is essential to a child’s proper mental and physical development.
According to the EPA, lead in drinking water contributes to 480,000 cases of learning disorders in children each year in the United States alone.
It is especially important for pregnant women to drink pure water as lead in drinking water can cause severe birth defects.
Benefits of Using a Water Filter
Water filters provide better tasting and better smelling drinking water by removing chlorine and bacterial contaminants.
Point-of-use water filters remove lead from drinking water immediately prior to consumption, thus preventing this harmful substance from entering the body.
The purchase of a countertop filter results in a source of clean, healthy water that costs much less than bottled water.
Water filters greatly reduce the risk of rectal cancer, colon cancer, and bladder cancer by removing chlorine and chlorine byproducts from drinking water.
A solid block carbon water filter can selectively remove dangerous contaminants from drinking water while retaining healthy mineral deposits that balance the pH of drinking water.
Drinking clean, filtered water protects the body from disease and leads to overall greater health.
A water filter provides clean, healthy water for cooking, as well as drinking, at the convenience of tap water.
Water filters reduce the risk of gastrointestinal disease by more than 33 percent by removing cryptosporidium and giardia from drinking water.
Drinking pure water is especially important for children. Water filters provide the healthiest water for children’s developing immune systems.
Water filters offer the last line of defense between the body and the over 2100 known toxins that may be present in drinking water
Reasons to Use a Shower Filter
The EPA has stated that every household in the United States has elevated levels of chloroform in the air due to chlorine released from showering water.
Tap water often contains at least as much, if not more, chlorine than is recommended for use in swimming pools.
More chlorine enters the body through dermal absorption and inhalation while showering than through drinking tap water.
The chlorine in showering water has harsh, drying effects on skin and hair.
Skin pores widen while showering, making dermal absorption of chlorine and other chemicals possible.
The chlorine in showering water can cause rashes and other skin irritations when absorbed by the skin.
Chemicals in showering water vaporize at a much faster rate than the actual water. Thus, the steam in a shower contains a much higher concentration of chemicals than the water itself.
Inhaled chemicals make their way into the bloodstream much more quickly than ingested chemicals, without the added filtration benefits of digestion.
More water contaminants are released into the air of a home from the shower than from any other source.
Chlorine is a suspected cause of breast cancer. Women suffering from breast cancer are all found to have 50-60 percent more chlorine in their breast tissue than healthy women.
Using a shower filter is one of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce harmful exposure to chlorine and other chemicals.
Showering in filtered water results in greater respiratory health by reducing the risk of asthma and bronchitis from chlorine inhalation.
Showering in chlorine-free, filtered water decreases the risks of bladder and breast cancer.
Children, who are particularly at risk of the harmful effects of chlorine inhalation, benefit especially from the removal of chlorine from showering water.
As chlorine is a leading cause of fatigue, showering in filtered, chlorine-free water results in higher energy levels and overall greater health.
Removing chlorine from showering water results in better air quality throughout the house.
Without the drying effects of chlorine, skin becomes softer, healthier, and younger looking.
Removing chlorine from showering water reduces the presence of skin rashes and the appearance of wrinkles.
Because the hair is able to preserve its natural moisturizing oils, it becomes softer and healthier when chlorine is removed from showering water.
When the body is able to retain its natural moisturizers, the need for costly lotions and moisturizers is greatly reduced.
Reasons to Use a Whole House Water Filter
Harmful chemicals constantly escape into the air in a home from the dishwasher, the toilet, and the shower.
The release of water contaminants into the air results in poor air quality in a home. This poor air quality is a leading cause of asthma and bronchitis.
The use of a countertop water filter and shower filter cannot entirely protect a home from harmful water contaminants.
Shower filters, because they must filter water at extreme temperatures, are not 100% effective at removing all dangerous contaminants.
Many skin rashes and other irritations are a result of chlorine and volatile organic chemicals VOCs) that have become embedded in clothing washed in chlorinated water.
The dishwasher releases more chlorine into the air than any other water source in the house, besides the shower.
The use of a whole house water filter is the only way to ensure pure, filtered water from every water source in the house.
A whole house water filter purifies water efficiently and cost-effectively, making it a viable solution to drinking water contamination for a majority of people.
The 2100 known water contaminants can make their way into our bodies not just from drinking the actual water but also from inhalation and dermal absorption.
Merely avoiding drinking tap water by indulging in bottled water is not an effective means of protection against dangerous water contaminants
Clean, filtered water emerges from every water source in the house.
Chlorine and other chemicals are removed as soon as they enter a home’s plumbing system and are no longer released into the air.
When chlorine and other chemicals are removed from water used for washing, these chemicals can no longer become embedded in clothing.
Removing chlorine from the water used in dishwashing prevents chlorine vapors from being released into the air and reduces soap scum on dishes.
Using a whole house water filter greatly enhances the overall healthfulness of drinking water.
Using a whole house water filter can alleviate the effects of asthma and allergies (for those who already suffer) by providing cleaner air to breathe in the house.
Filtering water through a whole house water filter eliminates the risks of both drinking and showering in contaminated water.
A whole house water filter is the only truly effective shower filter. It filters water at low temperatures to facilitate the removal of chlorine and other chemicals.
Using a whole house water filter ensures protection from the carcinogenic effects of both drinking and inhaling chlorine and other dangerous chemicals.
The use of a whole house water filter is the last means of protection from breakdowns in municipal water treatment and sanitation systems
On our blue planet 97.5% of the water is saltwater, unfit for human use.
The majority of freshwater is beyond our reach, locked into polar snow and ice.
Less than 1% of freshwater is usable, amounting to only 0.01% of the Earth’s total water.1
Even this would be enough to support the world’s population three times over, if used with care.2
However, water – like population – isn’t distributed evenly. Asia has the greatest annual availability of fresh-water and Australia the lowest. But when population is taken into account the picture looks very different.
Few Fresh Waters
Just 3 percent of the world’s water exists as fresh water—2 percent is locked in the polar ice caps; less than 1 percent resides in freshwater lakes and streams.
The Great Lakes contain an estimated 5,500 cubic miles (22,700 cubic kilometers) of water—a fifth of all the liquid surface fresh water on Earth.
The United States draws more than 40 billion gallons (151 million liters) of water from the Great Lakes every day—half of which is used for electrical power production.
Wisconsin Waters
About 6.4 million acres (2.6 million hectares) of Lakes Michigan and Superior and 95,000 cres (38,445 hectares) of the Upper Mississippi River lie within Wisconsin’s borders.
Wisconsin has more than 15,000 lakes and 13,500 miles (21,700 kilometers) of navigable streams and rivers.
Almost 3 percent of Wisconsin’s area—nearly a million acres (405,000 hectares)—is lakes.
Wisconsin has about 1.2 million billion gallons (4.5 million billion liters) of water underground—if it were above ground, it would submerge the state in 100 feet (30 meters) of water.
Nearly one-third of prehistoric, postglacial Wisconsin was wetlands. Nearly half of the estimated 10 million acres of presettlement wetlands have been lost.
Wisconsin’s 11 coastal counties contain more than 1.2 million acres of wetlands (486,000 hectares)—nearly a fourth of all of the state’s remaining wetlands. The wettest is Marinette County with nearly 228,000 acres (92,000 hectares).
"If you gave me several million years, there would be nothing that did not grow in beauty if it were surrounded by water."
—Jan Erik Vold, What All The World Knows, 1970
Waterways and Byways
Wisconsin has more than 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) of Great Lakes coastline and nearly 200 miles (325 kilometers) of Mississippi River shoreline.
There are 2,444 trout streams in Wisconsin—put end to end, they would stretch more than 956 miles (1,540 kilometers).
With 28 lakes, the Eagle River chain of lakes is the largest in the world.
More than a third of Wisconsin’s population lives in the 11 counties forming its Lake Michigan coast; 24 percent live in the three southeast coastal counties of Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha.
Wisconsin has more than 500,000 registered motorboats—about one for every 10 residents.
Anglers net about 67 million fish a year from Wisconsin waters, including more than 500,000 Great Lakes trout and salmon.
At least 160 nonindigenous aquatic species have colonized Great Lakes waters—over half of them since the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959.
Wisconsin’s power and water utilities spend about $5 million annually trying to protect water intakes from zebra mussels.
“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.”
—Benjamin Franklin
Highly Valued Assets
The assessed value of Lake Michigan lakeshore property in just one Wisconsin county— Door County—is almost $2 billion.
Each year, Wisconsin’s 12 active harbors on Lakes Michigan and Superior handle a total of more than 40 million tons (40 billion kilograms) of commodities valued at more than $7 billion.
Wetlands and abundant high-quality water make Wisconsin the nation’s top producer of cranberries and 10th-largest producer of trout.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources sells more than 1,000,000 resident and 500,000 nonresident recreational fishing licenses annually, collecting over $1.1 billion in fees. DNR estimates that those anglers spend another $2.1 billion in Wisconsin communities each year.
Thirsty People—and Cows
Wisconsin uses an average of 56 gallons (212 liters) of water per day per person from public water supplies and private wells. The national per capita average is 90 gallons (341 liters) a day.
Wisconsin has 1.4 million dairy cows, each of which needs to drink 45 gallons (170 liters) of water a day to produce 100 pounds (45 kg), or 12 gallons (45 liters), of milk.
Wisconsin public water utilities draw about 600 million gallons (2.3 billion liters) of water per day. The state’s 642 wastewater facilities release about the same amount of treated water daily.
Water Power
Wisconsin uses a total of more than 7 billion gallons (26.5 billion liters) of water per day—about 80 percent of it for thermoelectric power production.
Wisconsin’s 50 fossil fuel power plants use nearly 4 billion gallons (15 billion liters) of water per day. The state’s two nuclear power plants use about 2 billion gallons (7.5 billion liters) daily.
Almost all of the water used for thermoelectric power production in Wisconsin comes from surface sources.
Wisconsin has more than 200 hydroelectric generator units, which produce a total of 1.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.
“Water is the best of all things.”
—PINDAR (c. 522-438 B.C.), Olympian Odes
Water Underground
Groundwater use in Wisconsin totals about 760 million gallons (2.9 billion liters) per day.
Wisconsin has about 800,000 private wells, most of which tap groundwater less than 50 feet (15 meters) below the surface.
Seven in 10 Wisconsinites and 97 percent of the state’s inland communities depend on groundwater for their water supply.
Rainfall over Wisconsin averages 32 inches annually (82 centimeters); only 6-10 inches (15-25 centimeters) of it soaks in to become groundwater.
Common Contaminants
More than 800 toxic contaminants have been identified in Great Lakes water and sediment.
Nitrate—most of it from fertilizers—is by far the most common chemical contaminant found in Wisconsin groundwater.
More than 2 billion pounds (900 million kilograms) of nitrogen is added to Wisconsin soil annually, 80 percent of it from commercial fertilizers, manure and legumes.
Statewide, nitrate levels exceed state and federal standards in 10 percent of the private wells sampled.
Fifteen Wisconsin municipalities must treat their water to reduce nitrate levels.
Arsenic occurs naturally in Wisconsin groundwater, but unnaturally high concentrations have been found in 23 of the state’s 72 counties.
In 2002, Wisconsin issued a statewide advisory for mercury in all of its inland waters.
Water Facts: the Water-Poverty Connection
• 80 percent of disease in two-thirds of the world is related to poor drinking water and sanitation.
• One-third of the world’s households must use water sources outside the home. Girls and women in East Africa now walk an average of 21 minutes from home just to get water.
• The world is running out of water. Half the world’s poorest countries will face moderate to severe water shortages by the year 2025.
• Around the world there is a cumulative pollution of aquifers and water sources by agricultural, industrial and mining waste.
• Reduction in water-retention capacity of the earth’s soil is due to 80% of the forests of the world being destroyed.
• Poor management of water resources has led to degradation of the environment and loss of natural resources on which people in rural and remote areas depend for livelihood.
• Excessive consumption in the North, and wasteful overuse, especially by agribusiness, has significantly depleted the world’s water resources. One toilet flush uses as much water as the average person in a developing country uses for a whole day’s drinking, cooking, washing and cleaning!
• Effects of global warming, such as rising sea levels and altered seasonal patterns, are having a debilitating impact on freshwater resources.
Did you know water plays an important role in cushioning your joints and protecting your body organs and tissues? It is also important for regulating body temperature and helps keep tissues such as your mouth, eyes and nose moist.
Dehydration Detection:
Under normal dietary, physical and environmental conditions, thirst is our body's way of signaling us to drink more and stay hydrated. However, when the body loses too much water too quickly, e.g., excessive sweating, then thirst can be one of the early signs of dehydration.
Plain Water Doesn't Tickle Your Fancy:
If you are looking for a beverage alternative without all the calories, and for those who find water consumption boring or difficult, there are delicious new alternatives such as Fruit2O - naturally flavored water with Zero calories, Zero grams of carbohydrate and Zero grams of sugar per serving.
Water Game Plan:
For road trips, stock up on single serve portable bottles of water; develop habits such as drinking a glass of water before each meal and leaving a pitcher of water on the table; and create a water schedule, especially important for kids who often don't stop to hydrate.
Honolulu Company Selling Deep Seawater As Exotic Ingredient
HONOLULU -- A crew of former crab fishermen from Alaska has found a new livelihood in warmer and less dangerous waters off Hawaii, harvesting water from 3,000 feet below the surface to use in everything from beer to face creams.
The crew was hired by Deep Ocean Hawaii, a Honolulu-based company that is desalinating deep seawater aboard its vessel off Oahu and then marketing it as an ingredient free of impurities.
The company projects it can become a $50-million business in two years, eventually pumping 500,000 gallons of fresh deep seawater a day. It also hopes to develop its shipboard technology as an emergency source for drinking water.
In just a few years, deep seawater already has become Hawaii's biggest foreign export, with four other businesses shipping $37-million worth of bottled seawater a year, mostly for sale in Japan for up to $5 a bottle.
DOHawaii is the first company that will be exporting the Hawaii water in giant bladders for use in other products, rather than by the bottle.
"We're making ingredients, not the finished product," said Rudy Ahrens, chief executive of DSH International Inc., which operates as DOHawaii. "But this is going to add value to products all over the world.
The benefits and purity of any bottled water over treated tap water have been debated for years as the bottled water industry has expanded globally, but desalinated Hawaii deep seawater offers a special appeal.
It is touted by DOHawaii and other companies as a commodity that is thousands of years old, protected from modern impurities and pollution by a layer of the ocean which separates the warm surface water from colder water near the bottom.
Unlike water found above the thermocline layer, deep seawater doesn't contain hormones, pollution, pathogens or other compounds as the water has slowly migrated from the Arctic, said Hans Krock, professor emeritus in ocean engineering at the University of Hawaii and president of OCEES International Inc., a renewable energy consulting company.
"It's basically water that's been isolated from human influences," said Krock, who also advises and has a small ownership share in DOHawaii.
Independent research confirms deep seawater is more pristine and isolated from chemicals and other human-caused impurities found near the surface of the ocean, said Daniel Repeta, a senior scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
But the water could still be affected by materials dropped into the ocean, said Repeta, who has independently studied the deep water off the Big Island.
DOHawaii's 144-foot Spirit of the North, anchored more than three miles off the west coast of Oahu recently, started filling 5,200-gallon bladders installed in 20-foot-cargo containers. Current production is at 80,000 gallons of fresh water a day.
Much of the crew of the ship has spent the past 25 years in Alaska fishing for king crab, so development of the technology to harvest the water was a new challenge, said Ken Ostebo, president of DOHawaii's maritime operation.
"The idea of deep ocean water is simple, but being able to get it is the key," Ostebo said.
DOHawaii is entering a market developed by Koyo USA Corp. and other companies based on the Big Island.
DOHawaii is cashing in on an unlimited resource and the reputation the islands have as an exotic, isolated spot surrounded by relatively clear and clean waters.
Ahrens said beer companies want to develop "Hawaiian deep-ocean brews" and health and beauty businesses are searching for purer water for cleansers, face creams and other products. Companies producing sauces and juices and those packaging products such as tuna have also shown interest, and some local hotels plan to use the water in their spas, he said.
The company has inked contracts with a bottling company in Taiwan and with Deep Ocean Enterprise, which creates packaging for companies wanting to sell bottled water.
DOHawaii is also in talks with a major U.S. beer company and another brewery in Japan, cosmetic companies on the mainland and in Europe, as well as hotels, said Ahrens, who has a background as a merchant banker.
After researching other methods for nearly four years, DOHawaii developed a new system which lowers a hose into the ocean and then pumps it onto a moored boat. The water is then desalinated through reverse osmosis, packaged in the cargo containers and lifted onto a barge, which travels back and forth to the shore.
On the Big Island, the state, as a commercial venture, pumps the water using a 3,000 foot pipeline and then transports it to the companies, which do the desalination, filtering, bottling and packaging.
Four companies already selling the water, and other enterprises are planning to enter the market, said Ron Baird, chief executive officer of the National Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority. A Maui company uses that water to make a vodka called Ocean.
Ahrens recruited retired veteran Air Force pilot Rich Treadway to serve as his chief operating officer after meeting him during a flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles. Treadway said he hopes to develop a market with the military, which spends millions of dollars to get water to troops in desert areas.
Ahrens said a future focus of the company will be on emergency relief.
Since water supplies are often damaged or contaminated in the wake of hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters, DOHawaii hopes to sell governments the technology to pump, treat and package huge quantities of offshore water on short notice.
The company has a patent pending on its process, which Ahrens says also could play a role in an era of major global water disputes.
"Water has become a commodity of conflict," Ahrens said. "I mean without oil you can't drive, but without water you die."
FOR MORE FACTS VISIT
http://en.peperonity.com/go/sites/mview/my-area
