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Last Updated: Oct 20th, 2005 - 22:32:15 |
Nowadays, the United States is an urbanized country - the vast majority of us live in cities. When you have hundreds of people living in a square mile, it is much more efficient to have the county/city water department deliver water to households than to have everyone drill their own well or build their own water tank. Municipal water systems supply water for a city's residential, commercial, parkland, schools, and fire-fighting needs. Even industries get some of their water from these public-supply systems.
| So just how does your city supply water to you? A great deal of engineering goes into supplying our water needs. Cities have to have a means of storing a tremendous amount of water so it is available when we need it. Probably, somewhere near you (at a higher altitude), a river was dammed to form a reservoir. These reservoirs can be very large or they may cover just a few acres. Sometimes a well is dug to supply ground water to the storage reservoir. Closer to your home might be a water tower, which will always be built on high ground.
But no matter where your water comes from, simple gravity is used to get it into your drinking glass at home. Water flows through water pipes from the reservoir or tank to your home. The pipes start out large and get smaller (about 1-inch) by the time they get to your house. Gravity provides water pressure to send water on its way to you. The water pressure must be strong enough to sometimes go uphill to get to your house, and as the water flows in the pipes, friction between the water and the pipe walls reduces the water pressure. Water pressure is kept up by gradually reducing the diameter of the pipe. |  Don't miss our riveting fictional tale of how YOU establish the town of Dryville in the desert.
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