Tri-County/City Soil and Water Conservation District

Water is one of the most important needs of living things. It is second only to the air we breathe. In fact, some scientists believe that all life began in water. Today, our space explorations have found signs that water exists not only on Earth but throughout the universe.

Billions of years ago, as the molten earth cooled, water vapor condensed, fell, and began flowing. The first river was born.

Water is a molecule that consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. When these atoms are heated to a high temperature, they join to form water. Since most of the water on earth was created when the earth was forming, the water you are drinking today may have been a drink for a dinosaur or maybe a part of Cleopatra's bath water!

Water ... in its own passive way, responds to the rhythms of day and night, thawing, freezing, and thawing again, running drop by drop, a million drops together toward the sea. The little streams flow submissively, governed only by gravity and topography, mumbling, gurgling, skipping, sliding -- yet making not one wasted motion, following always the path of least resistance.

Some water runs straight away to the ocean. Some percolates slowly through the soil, penetrates hidden membranes in the many dark, subterranean passageways, and enters the peculiar chemistry of life, only to be transpired again into the air. There the vapors join the clouds and fall again in a summer thundershower, or blow on beyond the range to etch their phrases upon some other landmark.

What wondrous stories a water molecule could tell, of wild peaks visited on stormy nights, of quiet rivulets and raging rivers traveled, of peaceful fogs and sun-colored clouds, of glaciers and ocean currents, of fragile snowflakes and crisp little frost crystals, and of the seething protoplasmic retorts of living cells -- a zillion places visited since the earth's beginning.

Water ... precious water ... covers 70% of the earth; yet only 1% is available as a source for drinking. Even though the source is so limited, society continues to contaminate it.

Tri-County/City SWCD is dedicated to providing leadership, education, and technical programs to assist resource users to conserve, sustain and improve water quality.

Please explore the menu at left to learn more about water and how you can conserve it , sustain it, and improve water quality.

Note: The information and inspiration on this page are complements of Mr. David Cavagnaro, author of "Living Water."