1. WATER QUALITY IN GEORGIA
Original Power Point Created by
Ron Smoak
Modified by the GA Agriculture Education Curriculum
July 2002

2. OBJECTIVES
To help young farmers develop an awareness of the importance of protecting groundwater from contamination.
To provide young farmers with basic information on Georgia’s groundwater supply.
To educate Y.F.’s in best management practices in preventing pollution to ground water.

3. IMPORTANCE OF WATER Water is critical to each of our lives:
It is important for our health
It is important for our economy
It is important for our way of life

4. HOW IMPORTANT IS WATER?
People can live only 5 to 10 days without water
Two quarts of water per day are needed to:
Digest food
Lubricate joints
Clean eyes
Remove body wastes
Cool the body

5. OTHER WATER FACTS It takes 3 gal. of water to produce 1 gal. of milk
It takes 25 gal. of water to grow an ear of corn
47% of Georgia’s water comes from surface water
53% from groundwater
97% of rural users use groundwater

6. Rain, sleet, snow, & hail absorbed into ground
SOURCES OF WATER
Surface Water
Comes from lakes, rivers, reservoirs
Used by 47% of U.S. population
Mostly used in cities and suburbs
Ground Water
Used in rural areas
Rain, sleet, snow, & hail absorbed
into ground
Used by 53% of the population
All drinking water comes from surface water or ground water. People in cities frequently drink water that comes from surface water sources such as lakes, rivers or reservoirs that are close to the community.
In rural areas, people are more likely to drink ground water that was pumped from a well. Groundwater comes from rain, snow, sleet and hail that is pulled into the ground by gravity. This water is pulled through soil, sand, gravel and rock until it reaches a level where the ground is saturated with water. This saturated zone may be a few miles wide or could span the borders of many states.
Approximately 53% of the U.S. population uses ground water. This number includes 23 million Americans who have their own private source of drinking water from wells. 47% use surface water. With either surface or ground water, it is important to remember that activities many miles away will affect the water supply.
Your water utility or public works department can tell you the source of your public drinking water supply.

7. WATER USE AT HOME Toilets = 28% Baths = 9% Showers = 21%
Washing machines = 22%
Dishwasher = 3%
Faucets = 12%
Toilet Leakage = 5%

8. Used by 97% of rural Americans
WELL WATER
Used by 97% of rural Americans
Generally not treated
Natural filtration system .
If you're like millions of other rural Americans, you may rely on a private well for water for your family and farm or ranch. Roughly 97 percent of rural Americans depend on their underground water supply for drinking, cooking, livestock, crop irrigation and many other uses. Because it's so valuable, it is critical that you make every effort to keep your well water safe.
Well water is not generally treated, but studies have found a high level of safety because of the natural filtering that occurs as water slowly seeps through soil and rock to underground collection areas. Sources of well water deep within the earth are generally most isolated from surface sources of contamination.
Very shallow wells or improperly constructed or maintained wells can be contaminated when impurities bypass the natural filtering process. Thus, people who use water from their own well should have the water tested for purity. Location of wells is important, too. Wells should not be drilled near septic systems, nor near any underground storage tanks that contain or have ever contained, gasoline, heating oil or diesel fuel. Rural homeowners should not drill wells near feedlots or other areas where bacteria from animal waste may contaminate wells. And, just to be safe, homeowners and farmers should keep fertilizers and pesticides a safe distance from wells, since a spill could contaminate the drinking water supply.

9. IS WATER SAFE? Federal Safe Drinking Water Act
Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL)
Over a 70 year period, a person would have to drink thousands of gallons of tap water every day to exceed the MCL
The federal Safe Drinking Water Act established in 1974 requires that the EPA have a uniform nation- wide minimum standard for drinking water. State and public health and environmental agencies have the primary responsibility for ensuring that these federal drinking water quality standards are met by each public water supplier.
Thanks to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA now has issued drinking water standards known as Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL’s) for more than 84 contaminants, including various pesticides. These standards limit the amount of each substance allowed to be present in drinking water. MCL’s are based on extensive health and safety testing which is required by the EPA.
As a part of these studies, laboratory animals are fed very high doses of pesticides to look for potential signs of cancer, behavioral or growth changes, and birth, reproductive and other effects. To protect every member of society, including pregnant women, children and the elderly, MCL’s are set at least 100 to 1000 times below the pesticide dosage found to have NO BIOLOGICAL EFFECT in laboratory animals.
Over an average lifetime of 70 years, a person would have to drink thousands of gallons of tap water every day to consume a dose large enough to exceed the MCL for a typical corn or soybean herbicide.

10. AGRICULTURAL USE OF GROUNDWATER
Agriculture is largest consumer of government waste through irrigation
Irrigation consumes 68% of groundwater nationwide
% of the groundwater in Georgia was used for irrigation
Georgia ranks medium to low in respect to groundwater withdrawal

11. PROPERTIES OF GROUNDWATER
Groundwater moves into the ground from rainfall
It is absorbed into Recharge Zones:
Swamps
Sinkholes
Lakes, ponds, and rivers

12. GROUNDWATER MOVEMENT
Water moves constantly underground toward a point of discharge:
River or stream
Lake
Well
Ocean

13. AQUIFERS Aquifers are not flowing underground rivers.
Aquifers are porous rock materials through which groundwater flows freely:
Sand
Gravel
Sandstone
Limestone solution channels

14. GEORGIA’S AQUIFER SYSTEM
Floridan aquifer system
Claiborne aquifer system
Clayton aquifer system
Cretaccous aquifer system

15. FLORIDAN AQUIFER SYSTEM
One of most productive groundwater reservoirs in U.S.
Supplies approximately 50% of groundwater used in the state
Major water source in most of South Georgia
Primarily limestone and sand
ft. deep & 1000 to 5000 gpm
Recharge zones in much of South Georgia

16. PROTECTING SURFACE & GROUNDWATER
Cropping & tillage practices to minimize soil erosion
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Apply chemicals according to label
Irrigate to prevent run-off & leaching
Well-head protection
Nutrient management for crop land

17. COMMON SENSE FOR GROUNDWATER PROTECTION
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”
It is difficult, if not impossible, to clean up groundwater
Prevention is the best method

18. What You Can Do to Keep your Water Safe
Follow instructions with hazardous materials
Proper disposal of cleaning products, house paints, thinners, house and lawn pesticides, motor oil, medical wastes, and other contaminants
Ensure that no lawn and garden products are washed into streams or storm drains
Participate in community hazardous waste disposal days
Educate friends and neighbors on proper disposal of household and lawn & garden hazardous wastes