Water, Water, Everywhere

Water controls our lives. The earliest civilizations in the world grew around rivers: Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, Yellow, and Indus. Water remains necessary for growing food. (Just try growing something without water, and tell me how it works out for you.) We remain slaves to it. When we’re thirsty water dominates our thoughts. All we can think about is clear, liquid gold crossing our lips and quenching our parched mouths. Try to go a day without drinking anything. It won’t be easy. Go outside in hot weather and see if you can last an hour or two before the cravings kick in. Water is the single most necessary substance for our survival. The only other thing that comes close is the sun. And the benefits of the sun can be somewhat compensated for by manmade contraptions (heat, photosynthesis, vitamin D). As far as I know we haven’t invented a water substitute yet.

Water flows in a cycle. The amount of water on the Earth right now is pretty close to the same amount that’s always been here. When it rains the water collects on the ground. The ground absorbs some of the moisture, but once the ground reaches saturation the rain that keeps falling starts to flow. And where does it flow? Downhill of course! First the rain forms trickles, and these trickles merge together to form rivulets. Rivulets flow until they meet other rivulets and come together to make creeks. Creeks pour into other creeks and form rivers. Rivers combine to make even larger rivers. Rivers surge into the world’s oceans. From here the water evaporates into the air and is used to form clouds. These clouds then drift back over the land until they release water on the ground below. The cycle continues.

This shows the flowing of water through the system. From the oceans to the 
clouds to precipitation to flowing water and back into the ocean. 

The cycle is in continuous operation.

The cycle can be interrupted. The water might take a detour, but eventually it will get back into the circle. Consider the water in your home. That water was pulled out of a river, stream, lake, aquifer, or well and pumped into the water system. This water flows through pipes until it comes out of the faucet in your home. You fill a glass with water, drink it, and after some time you expel it back out. From there it flows into sewer system, travels to a sewage plant, and after treatment it’s released back into the water system. Water very rarely permanently leaves the cycle. The water you just drank could very well be the water a dinosaur drank millions of years ago.

Most of the water that flows down our rivers doesn't come from rain though. It comes from snow that accumulates through the winter and slowly melts off during the rest of the year. Without the snow pack our rivers would be a lot smaller and may even cease to exist except as seasonal water flows during wetter times of the year. Every time you look outside and dread the snow falling because it makes a mess of driving try to think instead of the benefits of snow. Snow enables us to take this area that’s basically a desert and turn it into lush farmland.

I would guess that most of us take water for granted. We turn the faucet on and expect water to flow out. But where does our water come from? If you live in Wenatchee and surrounding parts of Chelan County your water comes from the Eastbank Aquifer, located under parts of Lincoln Rock State Park and extending south to Rocky Reach Dam. Cashmere draws their water from wells and some surface water from the Wenatchee River. Leavenworth pulls their water from Icicle Creek and wells drilled near the golf course. Chelan pulls its water from Lake Chelan. Entiat pulls its water from community wells.

The three main watersheds in Chelan County. Wenatchee on the left, Entiat in the middle, and Lake Chelan on the right.
All three flow into the Columbia River.

How do we keep track of all this water moving around? We divide areas up into various watersheds. Watersheds encompass an area where all the surface water drains to a single point. They are usually bounded by ridges that separate neighboring watersheds. Chelan County is composed of roughly four different watersheds. The Wenatchee River watershed encompasses all the water that flows into the Wenatchee River. The Entiat River watershed takes in all the water draining into the Entiat River. Lake Chelan is its own watershed. The last watershed is made up of water draining from Stemilt Hill and Squilchuck. All of these watersheds drain into a larger watershed, the Columbia River, which drains parts of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, and British Columbia. The Columbia then flows into the Pacific Ocean on the border between Washington and Oregon.

It would seem that if the cycle is cyclic that there would be no need to conserve water, right? Regardless of how much we use it will just keep flowing through the cycle and return again as rain or snow. If only it were that simple. The issue isn’t that the water stops cycling. It’s more an issue of minimal disruption to the natural flow. The amount of water present every year is not always the same as the previous year. There are averages, but an average comes from several years of data. There’s no guarantee it will reach that level each year. There are so many facets to contend with. Fish, farms, cities, you, and I all rely on water. Do any of us have more right to it than another? The short answer is no. This is why it’s important to conserve, protect, and share our water resources.

For more information on some simple ways to conserve water and protect our waterways head over to http://picturethewenatchee.com/.

A map showing the snowpack of Washington as a percent of a 30 year average. As you can see all of the state
is below average with several areas having less than half of normal amounts.