Hard
Water Problems in the United States
Each day, rain is falling somewhere
on earth, while water is ascending somewhere else. You could
say that water is actually going in cycles. This is called
the Hydrologic Cycle.
The earth, sun and atmosphere
could be considered one large still. The sun, acting as a
heater, warms the water on the earth's surface. This warm
water evaporates and ascends into the atmosphere where, at
higher altitude, the water is cooled and condenses to form
clouds. As you know, this eventually means rain, snow, sleet,
etc.
As the water filters into the
ground it dissolves and collects everything from rocks to
pesticides. It seeps from a few feet to hundreds of feet through
pores, cracks crevices and fractures of the rocks that make
up the crust of the earth.
This saturated space between
geological materials is called groundwater. In the US, 80-90%
of the total available water supply comes from the ground.
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