Virginia Beach is right
where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. Our area, including
7 cities and assorted towns, is known as Tidewater because there are so
many rivers and inlets and branches of these that are effected by the tide.
We have 2 high tides and 2 low tides each day. The change in water height
in the Bay is about 3 feet between high and low tide. Our reports will
tell you about some of the individual bodies of water in our area.
The Atlantic Ocean
by Caleb Guzik
"Water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink."
"Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
This quote is true about the Atlantic Ocean. Even though it is the second largest ocean, you can’t drink any of its water. Lots of salt-water flows into it from many other bodies of water, especially the Mediterranean Sea.
This sea is connects to the eastern side of the North Atlantic, the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. Here the currents run clockwise. The other part is the South Atlantic that has currents that go in the opposite direction. This S-shaped body of water is between the America’s east coasts and Europe and Africa’s west coasts. It covers almost 41 million square miles.
The temperature of the surface water changes from very warm near the equator to freezing at the Arctic and Antarctic.
The Atlantic Ocean near us has lots of fish. Its waters that are full of food for sea life. Some are marlin, flounder, angler, lantern, tuna, and sardine. Other sea creatures are dolphin, whale, moray eel, sea anemone, and starfish.
These creatures live in a place formed over 150 million years ago
when the cracked land of the supercontinent split apart. Right now the
Atlantic Ocean is getting bigger, centimeter by centimeter.
Lake James
Lake James is a 104 acre private lake located in western Virginia Beach, Virginia. The lake has approximately 15 natural freshwater springs, is about 90 feet at the deepest point, has an underground inflow from Stumpy Lake, and an outflow canal, which eventually enters the Elizabeth River.
Various fish and freshwater beings have been introduced to the lake since 1983, and have developed their own aquatic ecosystem. Sightings have included bass, sunfish, eels, sterile carp, turtles, clams, and a wide variety of seagulls, great blue herons, ducks, and migrating birds.
The lake started as a borrow pit for the construction of Interstate 64. Workers came across natural springs during the excavation, creating a freshwater lake a little sooner than expected. Supposedly the pumps were unable to keep up with the suddenly increasing water flow and some heavy equipment still remains at the bottom of the lake.
Residents and their guests can swim, fish, sail,
canoe, and paddle or row their boats on the lake. Gas powered engines are
prohibited, but electric trolling engines are allowed. Lake James is also
a registered bird sanctuary area. Virginia State Police and Virginia Beach
Volunteer Rescue Units use the lake for their deep dive qualification on
scuba. Homes were built around the lake beginning in 1982-3. There are
now 274 homes in the community, with 109 of them lakefront. There is a
12 acre private park for residents, which includes a swimming area with
sandy beach, a boaters beach, a boat launching ramp, picnic and viewing
areas. Additionally there are smaller community park areas at intervals
throughout the neighborhood, as well as an additional boat ramp. This concludes
my report on Lake James. By: Rachel Bosley
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is a large bay with many rivers draining into it. The main rivers are the Susquehanna (largest input to the bay), the Potomac, the Rappahannock, the York and the James Rivers. In some places the bay is 25 miles across. The average depth is only about 30 feet. Chesapeake Bay is known for blue crabs and oysters. There are many other fish here like craoker, striped bass, Atlantic eels and anchovies.
Many ships use the bay to transport coal, autos and many other things. The 3 major ports are Norfolk, Baltimore and Newport News.
We have some good beaches on the bay that used by many people. The only problem is that in late July and August the jellyfish can get so numerous that it is unsafe to go swimming.
Hi! My name is Nikita and I’m going to tell you about Chesapeake Bay. It has a cool tunnel-bridge combination that is about 20 miles long. It crosses the mouth of Chesapeake Bay so we don't have to drive all of the way around to get to the other side. It takes about 30 minutes to ride though it and it has many lights to guide you through. The Bay connects to the ocean which my friend Ashanti is writing about. This important Bay contains many different animals like this one sea animal that you may know of, the horseshoe crab. There are also barracudas that roam in the area.
BYE!!!!!!!!!!!
Atlantic Ocean
Hi my name is Ashanti, and I’m going to tell you about the Atlantic Ocean.
In the Atlantic Ocean there are dolphins, whales, and hundreds of types of fishes. One of the many different types of fish are barracudas. In the Atlantic there are also horseshoe crabs. We have a beach about 15 miles long on the Atlantic Ocean. We get many tourists in the summer that come to enjoy the beaches. Sometimes we get big waves but usually they are small enough to swim and wade in. If a hurricane gets close we may have to evacuate because our whole city is not very high. It can bring very large waves and people living near the ocean may get a lot of water.
I hope I have told you enough about the Atlantic Ocean.
BYE!
The Elizabeth River
The eastern branch of the Elizabeth River comes within a half a mile of our school. It is very small here, only about 70 feet across. It is still effected by the tides. The Elizabeth River is really a big tidal basin that has very little fresh water coming into it. It has many small branches and tributaries that spreads all over the area. It is not a very clean river but our communities are trying to improve it. The southern branch of the Elizabeth River ends at a lock that separates it from the southern part of the intracoastal waterway. This is an inland waterway that you can use to take a boat all of the way to southern Florida.
This map will give you a good idea where Virginia Beach is on the east coast of the USA.
Virginia Beach is everything to the right of the blue line below.
That is our report on the water in our area. We are looking forward to seeing e-mails
Fairfield Falcons
Dear Friends
It happens to be Water Week in South Africa and we made the most of it with our this project. I have taken sentences frome each child in the class to make up this summary - It is slightly off the topic for Module 1, but fitted in well with our National Theme.
We went to a place called the Centre for Conservation Education in Wynberg from 9:00 to 12:30.
It was very grey and quite cold, we had to borrow blazers as we thought it might even rain.
The day was called water awareness.
We were divided into three groups. Our class went to the old classroom first.
There were desks inside that were over 150 years old. It was like being in a museum.
The one teacher Mark told us about water and how important it is.
He showed us how it fitted into a pyramid with the earth, plants, animals, the sun and humans. This makes up our earths life cycle. You can not remove any one except the humans with out the others folding up! he used boxes with the words on them and as he took one out all the others tumbeld down. This is how the earh would collapse if we destroy one part of it.
We also spoke about water around us and why we save it.
Then we watched a video about water in our city and had to answer five questions. This was mostly about dams near our city.
After a short break we all went to another teacher. We had our lesson in the GIRLS toilet! Even the boys!
It was very strange to have a lesson in the toilets. They had benches for us to sit on.
We first though about what it would be like to wake up one morning and have no water for the whole day. It was quite hard to think that the whole city would have not one drop of water.
Most people were worried about what we would drink. Some people thought about things like electricity and our cars.
The main part of the lesson was about saving water in the bathroom. (We will tell you about this in another letter, with more detail) We measured water that we waste and ways to save water. In one experiment we saved 15 litres by using a differend shower head. One with a smaller hole leading from the pipe.
We all then went to the last teacher in the hall.
Here we learned about water in foods that we eat. Did you know that a tomato and a lettuce are 95% water? We did not. Even bread is 30 % water. Most of our bodies are water too!
We then played games. We had to find people wasting water on big, busy pictures. Some groups got prizes if they found them all first.
Some things were difficult to find because we did not know what they were - like permaculture. Does anyone out there know what that is? We do now!
After a great day of water lessons we came home, but the day was not over yet!
Many of us swam in a big local gala in the afternoon. We swam well in the competition and our school won the gala.
We have also made special posters to go around the school to remind everyone to save water in water week. It is fun to see people reading them and admiring them.
We are looking forward to your Module 1
We realised that we had not told you where our water
comes from. We have learned that there are 5 dams on the top
of our famous Table
Mountain. There names are Victoria, Alexandra,
Hely-Hutchison, Woodhead and de Villiers. The water from these
dams is not enough for our city so we have to get water from further
away as well. The other dams that supply us with water are
the Palmiet and Steenbras 60 km away and the Theewaterskloof and
Wemmershoek dams that are over 120 km away. There are huge
big pipes that an adult person could walk through, bringing the water
to our city. We store the water in reservoirs in the city.
There are 4 main reservoirs: Moltino, Wynberg, Kloof Nek and Kirstenbosch.
The water gets treated at three main treatment plants before we can use
it in our homes. We
learned that lime, chlorine and other gases are
added to the water to clean it. We also learned a new word:
the places where the water falls as rain and runs off into the rivers
is called the catchment area. One dam can supply is with 920 000
000 litres of water every day!
We can not even imagine that amount of water!
Grade 4 R
Dear water participants,
Our school has a 2 week break beginning tomorrow, so we wanted to share our first module with you before the holiday. You can see what we have discovered by going to our website:
http://www.hccommunity.havergal.on.ca/BTaylor/links/water.htm
We look forward to hearing what you have done!
From,
Mrs Thom's Grade 2 class
Havergal College
Junior School
Dear Participants
Reply to Dianne Thom and her grade 2 class: Below a letter from our grade 4E class. Attached are 4 prayers done by the pupils for Mozambique. you may have to resize them.
Dear Dianne
My class enjoyed hearing what you were doing for the flood victims in Mozambique.
Ryan asks: „ Is the bottled water going to be Canadian water?‰ Tamzyn asks: „How are you going to get the water to Mozambique?‰ „We have collected food, clothing and toys to send to the children in Mozambique,‰ says Mihlali.
My class have written stories about the floods, researched water borne diseases and have written prayers for the people in Mozambique.
At present we are doing a theme on water, which includes learning about the water cycle, water storage and other water related aspects. Next week our grade 4‚s are going to clean up a nearby stream and our class is visiting one of our storage dams which supplies East London with water, namely the Nahoon Dam. The grade 4‚s will also be making water filters next term.
Our children are very enthusiastic about their water tasks and this week- end they have to see how they can survive for a day, using only one bucket of water. This includes bathing, washing dishes, cooking, brushing teeth, toilet flushing etc. It was decided today when they were given the task to be allowed to have one toilet flush only! (One of the boys suggested this!)
I hope they all have fun this week-end!
Sincerely
Di Thorp and Grade 4E
Module 1 from Reid Park Elementary
Our three major lakes are Lake Norman, Mountain Island Lake, and Lake Wylie. They are all part of the Catawba River. the Catawba River is made of three lakes because Duke Power dammed up the river. Charlotte and the surrounding areas also get their water from Mountain Island Lake. Lake Norman has three power plants, they are Cowans Ford Hydroelectric Station, Marshall Steam Station, and Mcquire Nuclear Station. Duke Power is on 4 Catawba lakes. They are Mountain Island Lake, Lake Wylie, Fishing Creek Lake, and Lake Wateree.
Sent from, Ross Hughes
The water that most people in Charlotte get comes Mountain Island Lake. Mountain Island Lake is bewteen Lake Wylie and Lake Norman. It has 61 miles of shoreline. It was completed in 1924. Some people in Charlotte get water from wells. Over the years people have been building houses on Mountain Island Lake. Most of these people use fetilizer. The fetilizer will go into the lake during rainfall. Then the chemicals will go into the lake. Motor boats use gas to move. The gas has to go somewhere so it goes into the lake and pollutes it. When people swim in the lake people might go to the bathroom and pollute it. All this pollutes the water Charlotte drinks.
Sent from, John Pressly
Kathy Novak
k.novak@cms.k12.nc.us
Reid Park Elementary
Dear Water Project Pals
It is good to be mailing you again. It is almost nearing Autumn in South Africa now, and we have not experienced much rainfall in the Western Cape, if any at all. It is still warm and sunny. Our pupils have researched the main sources of water in our area and we'll be sharing this with you here below.
Table Mountain
Table Moutain has five reservoirs that are being used to supply us with drinking water. Once this water is treated it is then able to be pumped out of our taps and used in our homes. The Woodhead dam is one of these five dams.It was completed in 1897 and named after the mayor at the time, Sir John Woodhead.The other four dams are the Hely-hutchinson, Victoria, Alexandra and De Villiers dams.
Steenbras Dam
The Steenbras Dam is named after the Steenbras fish. These fish are fed by a river that starts in the Hottentots Holland mountains. In 1921 the capacity of the dam was 24 000 megalitres. At the end of the year the dam wall was raised by two meters. This brought the capacity of the dam to 28 000 megalitres.
Theewaterskloof Dam
Water from this dam is conveyed to the Faure Water Treatment Plant. The capacity of the Faure Treatment Plant is 500 megalitres per day. This water is used to supply the areas of Khayelitsha, Mitchell's Plain and the Southern Suburbs. A pipeline of thirty six Kilometers is used to carry the water from the Dam, to the plant and then on to these three areas. The Southern Suburbs, where we live, is also surviced by the Wemmershoek Dam. This Dam supplies Cape Town with an amount of 52 000 megalitres of water a year.
Voelvlei Dam
During the period of 1948-1953 a large amount of money was spent here on a project which Thomas Bain had suggested as early as 1886. Released into the control canal, the water from the Voelvlei Dam is purified at Gouda and then pumped into a high storage reservoir about 2 km north-west of Riebeek West. From here the water is piped by gravity to Cape Town, Malmesbury, Darling, Moorreesburg, Riebek West, Riebeek-Kasteel and Hermon and also to Spoornet (formerly the South African railways)and some industrial areas.
Reservoirs in the Western Cape
We have small reservoirs at Kloof Nek, Molteno Dam, Kirstenbosch (a botanical garden), Wynberrg and Table Mountain. In 1903, Cape Town Municipality decided to start a big water scheme called Du Toitskloof.
This scheme supplied 500 000 gallons of water per day. The second river was called Witte river and it supplied 2 5000 gallons per day.
Near our School
Just outside our school, there is a canal carrying water which flows from small parts of our community,Pinelands, and this includes the industrial areas around Epping. The canal carries drainage water which later flows into the Black River. The Black River holds its name for being unhealhy and dirty, unfortunately.
Well, we hope that you have learnt from our research and that you enjoyed the read. We look forward to hearing and learning from you.
Mrs Tuck and the Grade 4's
Pinehurst Primary
Cape Town
Texas and Round Rock are still in the midst of a drought, even with the occasional spring showers we are getting now. Williamson County where Round Rock is located was one of 7 counties in Texas that were declared agricultural disaster areas by the US Dept. of Agriculture because of the drought.
We had a visit from the Water Department manager explaining how they
are trying to provide enough water for one of the fastest growing counties
in Texas. Round Rock gets about half of their water from local wells.
The rest is piped in from
2 lakes north of us: Lake Georgetown and Stillhouse Hollow Lake (33
miles away). We found out that 50% of Round Rock water is used by just
5% of their customers. We have such industries such as Dell and IBM plants
here. We also found out
that the schools use lots of water too. Most water in Round Rock
is used for watering of lawns. That is why water use spikes in the
hot summer months of June, July, and August when water use almost doubles.
The Water Department is looking for leaks in the pipes. We found that the area around our school has the most pipe leaks in Round Rock so we are on the lookout for leaks. We are looking for ways to conserve water now in our homes andcommunity.
Now we are planning a trip to the Water Treatment Plant to see how they purify the water from the wells and lakes. This has been very interesting.