Desal World
Welcome to Desal World, Florida's water theme park of the future! Desal World is currently under construction, but opening soon in a county near you! Our Desal World team works 'round the clock, splashineering new ways to produce safe, pure water. Our team has plenty of openings for creative, bright and enthusiastic team players to join us in turning Desal World into one of Florida's biggest water attractions. Visit Desal World today and think Splash!
Water is everywhere. Oceans cover two-thirds of Earth's surface. Rivers flow endlessly. Heavy rainfalls bring flooding. So why in the world does Florida need to think up new sources of drinking water?
The clean water that people in Florida drink comes mostly from the Floridan aquifer, a vast underground layer of porous limestone capable of holding a quadrillion gallons of water. The problem is that we pump water out of the Floridan aquifer faster than rainfall can replace it. Draining aquifers to meet the needs of the water supply puts the environment at risk.
The solution to the problem is to find ways to rely less on ground water - but how do you do that?
Learning goals
- To practice problem solving in groups
- To understand some of the issues surrounding limited water resources
- To learn about potential future sources of drinking water
- To stretch the imagination
Subjects
- Fine arts
- Science
- Language arts
- Social Science/Economics
Materials
- pens and crayons
- large paper
Sunshine State Standards
- Language Arts
- Reading, LA.A.1.3
- Writing, LA.B.2.3
- Listening, Viewing and Speaking, LA.C.1.3, LA.C.2.3, LA.C.3.3
- Language, LA.D.1.3, LA.D.2.3.
Activity
1. Divide the students into groups, challenging each group to engineer a new, alternative source of drinking water.
2. Have the students draw what their new process or technology will look like.
Have them analyze their plan from a cost-benefit perspective. How much do they think it will cost to turn the plan into reality? Could the plan potentially harm the environment? Will the benefits to the public be worth the cost?
3. When the groups have had time to complete their plans, have them present and defend their ideas to the class. Share with the class the background information on the back of this sheet - introducing real-world plans to develop alternative water sources.
Extension
Have the students create advertising to promote their ideas. The advertising can take any form - from magazine ads they draw to television commercials they act out as a skit.
Background
Once the students have presented their plans, share with them some of the plans that the Southwest Florida Water Management District is actually undertaking to meet the region's present and future water needs with minimal negative impact on the environment.
DESALINATION:
Water, water everywhere - and not a drop to drink!
West central Florida is poised to begin the desalination of Gulf water in the near future. Seawater desalination, a process that removes salt from water, will create an additional source of public supply water and ease some of the stress on traditional water supplies, especially the groundwater aquifers.
The most common process of desalination involves using high pressure to force salty water through a semi-permeable membrane into tanks where it separates into clean water and a brine (salt) byproduct. This process is called reverse osmosis.
At present, roughly 50 plants desalinate brackish water in the SWFWMD. Brackish water is a mixture of fresh water and sea water. It is pumped from aquifers near the coast, where brackish water occurs naturally.
Two traditional drawbacks to desalination have been the high cost of the energy needed to operate the plants and the safe disposal of the plant's highly concentrated brine by-product. Researchers are finding new ways to desalinate water with greater energy efficiency and to dilute the brine and return it safely to the Gulf so that it doesn't harm marine life.
ASR:
Saving water for when it's not a rainy day
The Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) process involves taking water from a river during periods of high flow, purifying it, and then pumping it into underground aquifers. Researchers have discovered that aquifers can serve as safe and inexpensive water-holding vessels with enormous capacity. The ASR process uses the same pumps and wells that currently draw water out of the ground. Later, during dry periods, it is recovered from the ground water, treated and used for public supply.
SURFACE WATER:
Drinking water the river gives
Water from the Manatee, Hillsborough and Peace rivers and three streams currently provides more than 100 million gallons of drinkable water per day. The water is treated and then used for public supply. The use of surface water must be carefully managed to protect natural resources from damage.
RECLAIMED WATER:
Old water never dies
Reclaimed water is defined as water having received treatment at least twice in a wastewater treatment plant. Reclaimed water is currently used to water lawns and landscapes (particularly at golf courses and cemeteries), to cool power plants, and to recharge groundwater supplies. Although it is often clean enough to drink, it is kept out of the public water supply.
STORMWATER:
When it rains, we store
Water that flows across land as a result of rainfall is called stormwater. Once it is collected, stored and treated, it can be used much like reclaimed water. Stormwater also can be made to flow into constructed wetlands where it provides habitat and aesthetic benefits. Like reclaimed water, it is not used for public supply.
CONSERVATION:
Water saved is water earned
As useful as all of these methods are, nothing tops conservation as a means of preserving west central Florida's water resources. The Southwest Florida Water Management District promotes conservation through several programs that teach students and community members ways to save water. For more information about Youth Education or community education, Xeriscape, plumbing retrofit, leak detection, or other District-sponsored conservation programs, call 1-800-423-1476, extension 4757.
