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When you think of water, maybe you see it in a glass. You might imagine it in a lake.
Or you might think of raindrops. But have you thought of where all this water comes
from?
You may be surprised to know that your water has probably been around the block a few times.
That's right. You might be taking a shower with the same water you used last year.
And how is that possible?
Well, for three and a half billion years, the earth's water has been moving from streams
to lakes to oceans, flowing underground, freezing on mountaintops and forming the clouds we
see in the sky.
And all this moving and shifting around of water is one of the largest recycling efforts
by mother nature. It's called the hydrologic cycle and it's the driving force behind the
weather we experience everyday. Here's how it works.
When the sun warms the water on the Earth's surface, that water turns into invisible water
vapor. This process is called evaporation. And every time water evaporates, it leaves
behind whatever salts, pollutants or other impurities were in it before becoming pure
again.
How did all that stuff get in there anyway?
Well that may be because water is the universal taxi cab for pollutants. When water returns
to the earth as precipitation, whether as rain, snow, sleet or hail, it may make several
stops to pick up riders like pesticides, chemicals, trash and yes even bacteria from something
dead. Did you know - every year over half of the four point two billion gallons of precipitation
that falls on the continental United States evaporates immediately after returning to
earth? Talk about "return to sender."
All the rest of that precipitation becomes either surface water or ground water. The
weather will always impact how we get our water. But thank goodness it will never change
the amount of water we have on earth. We just need to get wiser about nature's water recycling
program and do our part to make sure everyone has enough for life.