SCI 1102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Overconsumption, Hydrosphere, Septic Tank
Document Summary
Freshwater systems: of all the water on earth, only 2. 5% is considered fresh water, or water that is relatively pure, with few dissolved salts. Most of that is tied up in glaciers, ice caps, and aquifers: water is renewed and recycled as it moves through the hydrologic cycle, surface water converges within watersheds. (cid:1005). A(cid:374)y p(cid:396)e(cid:272)ipitatio(cid:374) (cid:396)ea(cid:272)hi(cid:374)g ea(cid:396)th"s la(cid:374)d su(cid:396)fa(cid:272)e that does (cid:374)ot e(cid:448)apo(cid:396)ate, flo(cid:449) i(cid:374)to (cid:449)ate(cid:396)(cid:449)ays, o(cid:396) get taken up by organisms infiltrates the surface. Ma(cid:374)y p(cid:396)edi(cid:272)t that (cid:449)ate(cid:396)"s (cid:396)ole i(cid:374) (cid:396)egio(cid:374)al (cid:272)o(cid:374)fli(cid:272)ts will increase as human population continues to grow and as climate change alters precipitation patterns. In a septic system, wastewater runs from the house to an underground septic tank, inside which solids and oils separate from water. The clarified water proceeds downhill to a drain field of perforated pipes laid horizontally in gravel-filled trenches underground. Microbes decompose pollutants in the wastewater that these pipes emit.
