When you turn on a faucet in your home, where does the water come from? Since we live in the headwaters of the San Juan River, we can see our wilderness watersheds from our windshields and we are fortunate to be the first water users in its journey downstream. Our drinking water may have been frozen in a snowfield on Saddle Mountain, plunged over Treasure Falls, or paused for a few days in Fourmile Lake.
Like the Ancient Puebloans, we collect, divert, and store water to sustain us, but on a much larger scale. But unlike the Ancient Puebloans, our modern society might not realize how living on the edge of a desert is a precarious endeavor, subject to the whims of the weather. Our flowing faucets may cause us to take clean water for granted (although members of our community who haul water or use groundwater tend to be exceptions).
Many residents in our community can receive water from an elaborate storage and distribution system that was planned, built, and maintained by previous generations. But how does our local municipal and agricultural water system work, what are the threats to our water supply, and is our current water supply adequate to meet the needs of future generations?
To boost our community’s water fluency, I’ve created an infographic that spatially depicts our local municipal water storage and distribution system and condenses a host of water supply indicators into one location. Ultimately, I hope that our community embraces the infographic as a way to visualize, understand, and communicate the factors that influence the quality, quantity, and future of our municipal water supply.
After attending the Water Talk, you'll be able to casually use acronyms like cfs, SWE, and MGD in conversations with your friends and neighbors, as well as trace your water back to your favorite mountains on the horizon. And maybe you’ll use less water too!
I hope to see you Thursday, October 5th at the Ruby Sisson Library at 6 PM!
