“All day I face the barren waste, without the taste of water, cool, clear water.” Sons of the Pioneers, a popular country western group, sang this song many years ago.
This song comes to mind when I think of the Ogallala Aquifer. The Ogallala Aquifer occupies the High Plains of the United States, extending northward from western Texas to South Dakota. The Ogallala was laid down about 10 million years ago by fluvial deposition from streams that flowed eastward from the Rocky Mountains during the Pliocene epoch.
Texas farmers have seen the ground sinking below their fields for decades, and know that they are using more water for irrigation than is being recharged into the aquifer from rainwater and snowmelt. Some authorities claim that the present overuse will cause complete depletion of the aquifer in a few decades. Some farmers have changed from farming cotton to “farming wind” as they install wind turbines.
This song comes to mind when I travel to other countries where it is dangerous to drink the local water. Don’t eat salads, don’t use the water to brush your teeth, don’t allow ice in your cold drinks! If you do, your vacation could be ruined.
Cool, clear water comes to mind when my husband, Keith Williams, and others venture onto Highland Lake to perform water quality measurements. (And then sometimes I find little vials of algae-filled water in my refrigerator that will eventually be taken to water specialists at the University of New Hampshire.) Or these volunteers join others to do a watershed survey.
This song comes to mind when I think of the economic impact to the state of Maine from our 6,000 scenic lakes. Maine’s lakes are the cleanest in the eastern United States. One estimate of economic benefit finds a total (including drinking water) of $1.8 billion dollars.
Clean water comes to mind when I see the bags of commercial fertilizers at the stores that contain high percentages of nitrogen, lines of spray bottles of weed killers, insect killers, and other chemicals. Evidently our neighbors are still unaware that all those chemicals will end up in our streams, lakes and possibly in Sebago Lake, and then streaming from our faucets.
Portland Water District, protector and provider of our Sebago Lake drinking water, assures us they are carefully monitoring the cleanliness and stability of our water supply. For this I am eternally grateful. However, each of us should be aware that we are responsible for helping maintain that standard of cleanliness.
Water, one of our last commons, to be cherished and protected.
Sally Breen lived with her grandmother as a child where the only water came from captured rain water.
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