a human habitation that was far from water supply water on the surface or a store of water close by underground nowadays most of us by june carry no water is delivered to us where we need it whenever we want to turn a faucet and there is water at any hour of the day or night we are connected with a cosmic cycle a gate and a pipeline to the clods and to all the earth and see that pipeline run through the frames of our house under the surface in our streets back through the treatment plant the aqueduct no matter what the root our water supply leaves to the clock when a rain drop strikes the air it either runs off into pools or surface streams tree in a day and a group of brass may send up seven hundred fifty tons of water in one growing season evaporation can lower the surface of a lake six or eight feet within a few months surface water of streams except that which evaporates runs to the sea to be drawn up to form club this is the cycle of water by which all life survives a cycle which we tapped by different methods according to our location in some cases we gather our water from granted an abundance of water dare we take our water supply for granted as we do the air we breathe in many parts of the united states long established sources of water on failing even in the driest seasons have become united with shallow basin underground water once close to the surface of the earth has fallen as much as eight hundred feet in some locations prolonging water famines  turning once fertile farmland into arid waste how in this great age could we ever run short of water what is happening to the nation's water supply first of all it takes a lot of water every day every day families who once fought along with a whale or a cistern are being provided with running water gone are the days when plumbing was a luxury all of us the fact there are more and more of us every year i'm america is still growing and as we grow so does our need for more water we have drawn heavily on our water supplies to advance our standard of living to that age the drudgery of the more and more air conditioning is a factor in our trend too comfortable if the air conditioning system of a large building may use three million gallons of water a day as much as a city of twenty five thousand people and in industry today water is the universal raw material almost no product we take for granted could be made without water from the your water in fabulous quantities twenty four gallons to produce a pound of paper up to ten gallons to produce a can of vegetables seventy gallons to make a pound of woollen cloth ten gallons of water to produce every gallon of gasoline sixty five thousand gallons to produce a ton irrigation which turns barony cares into productive farms was once confined to the west watering of a million acres east of the great plains is a common practice rain letting it cut off topsoil and run uselessly away with a load of in the wrong places too much at the wrong time work keeping our water supply in balance local water shortages are part of a large regional problem in many instances water works engineers are pooling their skills and resources on a regional and interstate basis and on their efforts to but the job is being charted with vision and determination insure against future water shortages raise the level of water tables purified waste water will have to be returned underground techniques for controlling the weather are being tried when conditions are right brain is made to fall by seeding clouds with dry ice are silver iodi there are experiments underway to test the vast expanse of the sea and remove its salt economically undermined it enough water is only a part of the job ahead for  water must be safe and palatable as well in all nature there is no such thing as really your water even rame collects particles and gas as it comes down no matter what it once held by the time it gets into our homes it must be free from harmful impurities it must measure up to federal state and local different types of contamination called for different treatment methods which include flocculation clarification filtration disinfection what does this mean it means a better safer drink of water for you your drink of water may be processed in a complex plant like this the water not fit to use as it is watery with impurities is pumped in here on its way to the preliminary settling basin floor and other chemicals may be added to the raw water to stop the purification process here from the treatment plant there is still the big job of getting it to our streets and home gas water works operation is a skilled and technical profession requiring trained and experienced personnel this is a big industry water supply ways of material handled seven times as big as all other industries put together to keep us supplied around the clock it takes begins delay should with proper types of equipment building basins and filthy power substation electric switching equipment electric motors and pumps we must meet these needs we are to have enough safe water wherever and whenever we want  a glassful for any young citizen in the middle of the line fifty thousand gallons on short notice to fight a fire several hundred thousand gallons before the blazes o the water works ma'am have the answers to the problem with your help they can put their plans to work to provide plenty of safe water for tomorrow i must understand and support the water supply project affecting our communit we can see that not one drop of this life giving liquid is wasted