Answer:
The main sources of water are surface water, groundwater, rainwater, and saltwater.
Explanation:
Surface Water - Surface water resources are the most commonly used method of supplying water to various regions in the United States. This classification primarily includes rivers, lakes, streams, reservoirs, and wetlands—all of which contain fresh water rather than saltwater. These sources are easiest to filter, so they produce the highest-quality drinking water for the general public. Plus, another reason we mostly use these resources is their accessibility—many people live near large lakes or streams from which they can easily extract water. Surface water is therefore the most reasonable option for providing homes and businesses with the resources they need to function.
Groundwater - Believe it or not, there’s actually a larger source of water underneath your feet than there is in all the rivers and lakes combined. However, we rarely get to tap into these sources due to how difficult they are to reach. Groundwater fills the cracks in bedrock and sand beneath the surface, making contaminants tedious to filter out in large quantities. These sources also saturate soil and contain so much sediment that the water must undergo a thorough filtration process to even become drinkable. So, while groundwater is the main source of plant hydration, it’s not often a sustainable option for people. Fortunately, we aren’t completely cut off from groundwater sources—many of them feed some of our surface water supplies through underground springs.
Rainwater - Rainwater and stormwater have unique characteristics, while they have little to no TDS (other than the catchment material) they are typically low in pH very soft but needed to be treated like surface water.
Otherwise known as runoff or rainwater, stormwater is water that comes from heavy weather such as rain, snow, and hail. This water flows over the land and, in the process, collects a variety of pollutants such as engine oil, fertilizer, and pesticides. As it picks up these contaminants, it eventually gathers in different areas, potentially combining with some of our other water sources. For this reason, stormwater—and water from any other type of source—must undergo a series of tests that properly identify and filter out dangerous toxins. In addition, since the majority of this water flows back into the oceans, capturing it beforehand is a great way to increase our overall water supply on land. For this reason, many sustainability experts have researched different ways to collect this water and filter it before it washes away.
Saltwater - It’s common knowledge that our oceans make up over 70 percent of the planet. However, the salty, abrasive nature of this water makes using it for any of our current processes extremely difficult. In fact, the amount of salt present in ocean water makes it impossible for us to safely drink it in large enough quantities to survive. This is why we dominantly rely on freshwater sources to supply us with the water we need to drink. Fortunately, recent advances in filtration technology have yielded more effective ways to dilute saltwater and remove the acidity that prevents us from using it. Still, desalination plants are low in number due to the amount of energy this filtration process requires. Further evolution of these tools will make the process more sustainable and easier to repeat.
