Despite these dramatic losses, we still have some of west Tennessee's best remaining wetlands in our own backyard, along the Wolf and Hatchie rivers. Wetlands are important for a number of reasons. Not only are they great places for wildlife to flourish, they also have important qualities that may not be obvious as you drive past them on a highway or even canoe through them. An aquifer is a water-saturated layer of sand, and all of our city's drinking water comes from an aquifer about 500 feet below the surface that is known as the Memphis Sands. Some of the water in the Memphis Sands is thousands of years old, and so is very clean, but this ancient water is mixed with water that is just a few years old.
Wetlands can prevent polluted water from entering the Memphis Sands.
Rainwater is held in the sponge-like vegetation of wetlands along the Wolf River, which filters many pollutants, then the purified water moves slowly down into a shallow aquifer. This shallow aquifer then drains slowly into the Memphis Sands. Wetlands are a strong natural defense against the drinking water contamination that is becoming increasingly common in urban areas. Wetlands also provide our cities with free flood protection, as they are capable of soaking up and storing huge amounts of floodwater. Throughout the United States, we are filling in the natural floodplains of our rivers with dirt in order to increase the area available for development.