Water Bottle Project

6th Grade is participating in the Water Bottle Project here at Nativity. 40 Fun And Interesting Water Facts -- 75% of the earth is covered with water. 97% of earth's water is in the oceans. Only 3% of the earth's water can be used as drinking water. 75% of the world's fresh water is frozen in the polar ice caps. If all the world's water were fit into a gallon jug, the fresh water available for us to use would equal only about one tablespoon. Although a person can live without food for more than a month, a person can only live without water for approximately one week. The average person in the United States uses 80 to 100 gallons of water each day. During medieval times a person used only 5 gallons per day. There is the same amount of water on Earth as there was when the Earth was formed. The water from your faucet could contain molecules that dinosaurs drank. About 1.2 billion gallons of potable water are used in New Jersey each day. 1.2 billion people worldwide do not have access to clean water. 87% of New Jersey's population obtains its drinking water from a public water system and 13% from private residential wells. The largest body of water in New Jersey is Lake Hopatcong. The lake is 9 miles in length and 14.7 billion gallons. The world's tallest water sphere is located in Union, New Jersey. It is 212 feet tall and holds 250,000 gallons of well water. Click here for more information on this water sphere. It takes 2 gallons to brush your teeth. It takes 2 to 7 gallons to flush a toilet. It takes 25 to 50 gallons to take a shower. It takes about 1 gallon of water to process a quarter pound of hamburger. It takes 2,072 gallons of water to make four new tires. Typically, households consume approximately 30% of their water for outdoor use, such as watering the lawn. Inside, toilets use the most water, with an average of 27 gallons per person per day. You can refill an 8-oz glass of water approximately 15,000 times for the same cost as a six-pack of soda. An automatic dishwasher uses approximately 9 to 12 gallons of water while hand washing dishes can use up to 20 gallons. If every household in America had a faucet that dripped once each second, 928 million gallons of water a day would leak away. A dairy cow must drink four gallons of water to produce one gallon of milk. One gallon of water weighs approximately 8 ½ pounds. 300 million gallons of water are needed to produce a single day's supply of U.S. newsprint. Sources of water pollution include; oil spills, fertilizer and agricultural run-off, sewage, stormwater, and industrial wastes. Ancient Egyptians treated water by siphoning water out of the top of huge jars after allowing the muddy water from the Nile River to settle. Hippocrates, known as the father of medicine, directed people in Greece to boil and strain water before drinking it. In the 1950's scientists began to suspect that water might carry diseases. Although earlier treatment of water could make the water safer, it was mainly done to improve the taste, smell or looks of the water. The first United States water plant with filters was built in 1872 in Poughkeepsie, New York. In Altona, Germany in 1892, the water from the Elbe River filtered before drinking. At the time, hundreds of people from nearby Hamburg (which did not filter their water) died from cholera. The citizens of Altona were untouched by this waterborne disease. In 1908, Jersey City, New Jersey and Chicago, Illinois were the first water supplies to be chlorinated in the United States. The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1974 represents the first time that public drinking water supplies were protected on a federal (national) level in the United States. Amendments were made to the SDWA in 1986 and 1996. New Jersey Legislature approved the New Jersey Safe Drinking Water Act, which authorized the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to assume primacy and enforcement responsibility for the Federal Safe Drinking Water Program. One gallon of water is equal to 3.785 liters of water. One cubic foot of water is equal to 7.48 gallons of water. Water boils at 212o Fahrenheit or 100o Celsius. Water freezes at 32o Fahrenheit or 0o Celsius. Human brains are 75% water. Human bones are 25% water. Human blood is 83% water. Water regulates the earth's temperature. Water expands by 9% when it freezes. Frozen water (ice) is lighter than water, which is why ice floats in water. Sources:http://www.nps.gov/rivers/waterfacts.html http://www.njawwa.org/kidsweb/waterfacts/ http://www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/waterfactsoflife.html