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ponds, lakes, reservoirs, etc.) or groundwater (which fills the spaces between soil particles and the cracks and spaces within rocks below the ground surface - see graphic). Most drinking water in Nevada comes from groundwater sources.
Ninety-seven percent of the water in the world is salt water, which is generally not suited for human use. Technological methods of removing salt from water remain, for the most part, too expensive for widespread use. Of the three percent of the world’s water that is freshwater, almost two thirds of it is frozen in polar ice caps and glaciers. That leaves about only one percent of the world’s water available for human use.
This one percent is found either as surface water (which is visible above the ground surface and occurs in the form of creeks, rivers,
This one percent is found either as surface water (which is visible above the ground surface and occurs in the form of creeks, rivers,
Water distribution:
Groundwater can often be a better source for drinking water supplies than surface water for several reasons. First, it is not as “exposed” as surface water. Contaminants can quickly and directly be washed into a surface water source through runoff following heavy precipitation, for example. Second, the very earth materials through which ground water moves can act as a “natural filter”. And because water moves much more slowly through ground than it does on the surface of the land, there is more time for natural filtering to occur. Third, surface water sources can be more vulnerable to direct contamination from vandalism or similar destructive acts.
Aquifers are geologic units of soil or rock that yield usable quantities of water. They can be very small, perhaps only a few feet thick and several acres in extent, or very large--hundreds of feet thick and covering thousands of miles. The shallower the aquifer, the more susceptible it is to contamination.
water basics