Transparency: Where Does Your Water Come From?
- Posted by: GOOD , Fogelson-Lubliner
- on March 10, 2009 at 8:30 am
The state of California recently declared an emergency due to drought, and the water supplies in many American cities are at dangerously low levels. This is partially because our largest metropolises have far out-stripped their fresh water sources, forcing them to import water from lakes, reservoirs, and rivers, sometimes hundreds of miles away. In our latest Transparency, we look at which cities have sustainable, self-contained water supplies, and which cities are forced to turn to outside help. Click here to view the full Transparency.
A collaboration between GOOD and Fogelson-Lubliner
SOURCES: Cities’ Water Departments
CORRECTION: We’ve uploaded a new file with some minor corrections to this piece. Also, please note that Lake Havasu is technically a reservoir and not a lake. It is mislabeled in the piece. We regret the error. You can view the uncorrected piece here.
DISCUSSION: 19 Comments
This can be a little misleading. Water from Lake Michigan is piped at least 50 miles from Chicago in all directions (except east, of course). So yes, Chicago gets its water from nearby sources, but those nearby sources also hydrate the distant suburbs.
The two rivers that Philadelphia uses run down the East and West sides of the city! Not 33 miles away.
Lake Havasu is not a lake. It is a reservoir. It is created by Parker Dam, finished in 1934.
if the sacramento river, according to you, runs through or around los angeles is kinda of funny, they would need that water! There is no way possible for that one.Also, the entire so cal region get 85% of the water from the colorado river…… DUH!!!!!!!!!
This is the most poorly designed graphic I have ever seen. And no, I am not exaggerating. This website should really get somebody with artistic talent to design these things.
This is piss poor (horizontal scroll wtf).| if the sacramento river, according to you, runs through or around los
| angeles is kinda of funny, they would need that water! There is no way
| possible for that one.Also, the entire so cal region get 85% of the
water | from the colorado river…… DUH!!!!!!!!!But, a) Sacramento delta river water gets pumped over the grape vine to so-cal. Ever heard of the California Aqueduct or Edmund G. Brown mother fucker? Also b) Lake Havasu = Colorado River water. DUH!!!!!
San Diego gets its water from Lake Havasu via the Colorado River: http://www.sandiego.gov/water/quality/#aRegarding Philly, like Chicago, even though the rivers are right in/next to the city, they don’t exactly have a pipe stuck in the Delaware off of the Ben Franklin Bridge. The sources are from further away on these very long rivers. Everyone calm down.
why is Dune-du-Sud ’s ( in Québec ) beach picture was used for a New york graphic… kinda funny !
You anonymous half-wits are totally missing the point. Anyone with an ounce of imagination and curiosity would appreciate this fresh, thoroughly thought out, and visually stunning approach to presenting this information. So there are a few things that might require an asterisk for further explanation. So what? Maybe you’d like GOOD to start nitpicking the spelling and punctuation errors in your hastily-posted, kneejerk reaction comments.
Don’t get your panties in a bunch, kids.Seriously.
I’m confused. I live a mile from the Ashokan Reservoir and I drive to NYC all the time. I’m only 105 miles away. How did they come up with 163 miles? hmmmmmm
Faucet?
Do you mean Los Angeles, the city, or Los Angeles, the county? They are
two different entities and your graphic appears misleading. Los Angeles, the city, gets its water from
three primary sources: Owens River and Mono Lake watersheds; local
rivers and aquifers; and Metropolitan Water District (MWD). MWD is the
greater water district that makes up most of Southern California. It
gets its water from the Colorado River, here depicted as Lake Havasu,
and the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers Delta (Delta). That mix of
grimy water from MWD is sold off to most of the local water agencies,
including Los Angeles, San Diego, Pasadena, and various Orange County
cities, which then mix it with the water they get from other sources.
You should also provide a contrast with San Francisco which pipes its
water from Yosemite National Park and resells some of that water to
agencies and water districts from San Jose on up.
The graphic seems to be a bit misleading as it makes a somewhat arbitrary distinction between reservoirs and lakes. All three of Houston’s “lakes” are yellow, but they are all three technically reservoirs and should be red if you’re making a distinction between the two.
[...] http://www.good.is/post/transparency-where-does-your-water-come-from/ no comments yet « Park(ing) [...]
i really wanted to like this; on first glance it’s graphically appealing, but alas it’s confusing and inconsistent. How much scrolling should it take to determine which jug goes with which city? And I guess if you are an E coast city (or Houston) you don,t get a big guy in white standing close to camera to show that you get NONE of your water locally. did I get that right?
I like the usage of photography to tell the distance. brilliant idea!
the designation of local for sources that are denoted as groundwater, recycled or surface water is not very clear. are you establishing a new definition of “local” water in this way? what do you mean by surface water? as far as i know this does include water in streams, rivers, and lakes. in Philadelphia, the Schuylkill River & the Delaware River flow directly through the neighborhoods that obtain their water from these sources. i know this graphic was meant to simplify a complex concept and i do like the direction it is going, but perhaps a more in depth iteration would be in order.
It saddens me that we are draining our pristine and valuable water sources, and I am going to try and reduce my water footprint. Without awareness, the cycle continues and nothing ever changes. I enjoyed this article.