1-a. The water supply chain for my hometown of Blue Bell, Pa starts at the Delaware River, where 93% of the water comes from (7% from groundwater). Approximately 96 million gallons of water per day is diverted from the river to Neshaminy Creek where it then flows to Lake Galena. Water from the lake then flows to the Forest Park Water treatment plant in Chalfont, Pa. After the water is treated, the North Wales Water Authority takes its share of the water and holds it in distribution mains. From the mains, water travels through pipes until it reaches homes. Once the water is used in homes and businesses, it goes down the drain into the sanitary sewer pipes. The water then flows from the sanitary sewer pipes to the East Norriton-Plymouth-Whitpain Joint Sewer Authority in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. It is treated to remove sludge through primary sedimentation, aeration, final sedimentation and chlorine disinfection. The treated water is then dispensed into the Schuylkill River.

1-b. 

That is total of 54.5 gallons of water.

1-c. For this challenge, I tried my best to limit my water usage but it was not easy. I kept drinking water as a priority and tried to cut back on everything else. I cut my shower time in half since that was one of the activities that used the most water and even went to the bathroom in the shower to save a toilet flush (don’t worry, just peeing). Brushing my teeth was about the same since I didn’t want to skimp on that. For washing dishes I just used paper plates which still isn’t good for the environment but it cut down on water. The toilet flushing was also something I couldn’t really cut back on because there was no way I was just going to let it sit there. Even though I was able to cut down on my usage, the experiment was still a failure. Compared to my average usage, it’s just not realistic for me to live on two gallons a day unless I took some extreme measures. Geography makes a huge impact on water usage because if you don’t near a source of fresh water or some sort of plant that treats water, you’ll have to limit your usage. What we need to do is make a collective action to save water so that the people who do live in more isolated areas can have the water that we’re not using.