Each of the three panelists was given fifteen minutes to speak and questions were answered at the end of the presentations. Mr. Kecskes began by describing a tool that has been used for decades to look at the water supply problem. This tool is a water budget. The water budget is like a checking account because it acts as an accounting system of the various paths water takes as it comes from the sky and enters aquifers. Mr. Kecskes went on to review the hydrologic cycle.
Water evaporates off of oceans and lakes and eventually forms clouds.
The water will then come back to the earth as rain. As the water falls to the earth it will take different pathways. The ground water systems are where the human population in Ocean County gets most of its fresh water supply and provides the base flow for rivers and streams. If ground water levels are high then salt water will be kept out of the aquifers. Between November and May stream flow is high.