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mjoyce · Joined: 03 Jan 2011 Posts: 19

Since Ellie's question had already been answered, I decided to partially answer Isaac's question.

From www.epa.gov

"Your drinking water comes from surface water or ground water. The water that systems pump and treat from sources open to the atmosphere, such as rivers, lakes, and reservoirs is known as surface water. Water pumped from wells drilled into under- ground aquifers, geologic formations containing water, is called ground water.....An underground network of pipes typically delivers drinking water to the homes and businesses served by the water system. Small systems serving just a hand- ful of households may be relatively simple, while large metropolitan systems can be extremely com- plex—sometimes consisting of thousands of miles of pipes serving millions of people. Drinking water must meet required health standards when it leaves the treatment plant. After treated water leaves the plant, it is monitored within the distribution system to identify and remedy any problems such as water main breaks, pressure variations, or growth of microorganisms."

Very Happy

Knaideface · Joined: 03 Jan 2011 Posts: 39

here is my answer to michaela!

dylanh · Joined: 03 Jan 2011 Posts: 48

Not sure if it really annoys people when I just do little posts like this, but I think of the forum as a discussion so I try and have a little of a conversation. If it's distracting or anything let me know, because I really don't intend it to be.

Anyway, thanks Will for answering my question. I liked your idea of the rewards balancing out the risk, and the settlers doubting Native American use to be significant because it wasn't profit based. The whole profit based idea was interesting and really, for lack of a better word, smart, and seems to summarize what we think of "expansion" (including England to America) so far. It just really stood out to me.

Mikaela (Michaela?)'s response to Ellie's question: The, "do as I say, not as I do," mentality is pretty spot on, and hopefully goes with and clarifies the poor attempt at a metaphor I made.

arose2011 · Joined: 03 Jan 2011 Posts: 17

First, Gigi’s question:

I can see why you were confused about this point, because I went back and re-read the 3 pages leading up to the quote, and I’m still a little confused about it myself. I think (and think of course is the key word here) that what the quote means is that in the minds of certain westerners who still believed in the old system of taking land for one’s self, huge chunks of western land was not a part of the land’s given state, because it had previously been “acquired by purchase, negotiation, of conquest before any western state existed.” (Page 211). I hope that at least partially answers your question.

Next, Isaac’s question

I feel like most people (I’d hazard a guess at around 87%) do not know where their water comes from. I think about half the people getting water think about where it comes from. Like Isaac, I’d never thought about it until these readings, I just sort of accepted the water coming out of my faucet/showerhead/fridge/whatever as being clean water that I could drink, or use to shower, etc. I also feel like most people’s assumptions about where the water comes from is wrong. I bet if you asked a hundred unknowing people “where does your water come from?”, you’d hear a wide variety of answers, from “the ocean” to “the private water companies” to “my faucet” (which probably would’ve been my smart aleck answer).

Lastly, my own question:

Seeing as I’m posting this as the last question of the night, I’ll try to make it a question that can potentially prompt a discussion tomorrow in class: should the government continue to use the western states the way they care, with nuclear waste dumps and whatnot, or should there be drastic changes in how we use the west’s massive amounts of space, and if so, what should we use all that land for?

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