Chesapeake Bay watershed
By: Eduardo Arellano
Water Recycling
When you don't recycle, you create much more waste that has to be treated or disposed of in some way. When water gets dumped into our sewer systems, it requires treatment that uses a lot of energy and money. Also, if too much water goes to wastewater treatment facilities, those facilities will eventually need to be upgraded, which costs even more. Storm-water run off is one of the worst ways of water going to waste because all the trash and debris gets caught into the water and causes a mess everywhere. Recycling anything ultimately helps the Chesapeake Bay and the environment as a whole. Recycling cans, bottles, paper and other items reduces the amount of waste that travels to landfills, helping to make those landfills last longer so no new landfills need to be built.
Conservation Strategies
- A working forest (is one that is actively managed using a forest management plan as a guide.)
- Launch Chesapeake Treasured Landscape Initiative (DOI)
- Coordinate and target federal land conservation funding (DOI, NOAA, DOT, DOD, USDA)
- Develop a Bay-wide strategy to reduce the loss of farms and forest (USDA)
Water Recycling
- Literally recycling water to prevent waste.
Stormwater runoff
- Stormwater runoff occurs when precipitation from rain or snowmelt flows over the ground.
Watershed Diagram
- Aquifer- A permeable layer through which groundwater flows.
- Infiltration- The process by which precipitation enters the ground and becomes groundwater.
- Porosity- The percentage of pore space in a material.
- Permeability- the ability of a material to let water pass through it.
- aquiclude- An impermeable barrier to groundwater flow.
- zone of saturation- The depth at which groundwater completely fills all the pores of a material.