Quiz Answers

  1. "There is the same amount of water on the earth today that there was a million years ago."
    • True - The water we use today is the same water that the dinosaurs drank - and it's the same water we will give to our children.
  2. "Most people in North America get their water from wells."
    • False - Most people in North American get their drinking water from area rivers, streams and lakes.
  3. "The city's storm drain system empties into the sanitary sewer system."
    • False - The purpose of the City's storm drain system is to remove water quickly from our streets and parking lots to prevent flooding. The storm drain system empties directly into the closest stream or creek.
  4. "Watershed and drainage basin are not the same things."
    • False - watershed or river basin means the same thing - it is an area of land that, due to it’s natural drainage pattern collects precipitation and deposits it into a particular body of water.  The term river basin is also an acceptable term.
  5. "Water stabilizes the earth's temperature."
    • True
  6. "Used motor oil is the number one pollutant found is surface water."
    • False - Though motor oil is a serious source of pollution to area waterways (one quart can contaminate 250,000 gallons of water!), sediment is the number one source of pollution to our rivers and streams.
  7. "Wetlands provide a valuable environmental function by filtering out sediment, cushioning the coast from storms and floods. Also, they are breeding grounds for birds, fish and mammals."
    • True
  8. "A curve or bend in the river is called an meander."
    • True
  9. "The Clean Water Act, the cornerstone of surface water protection, became law in 1940."
    • False - The Clean Water Act became law in 1972.
  10. "Less the 1% of the earth’s surface water is available for human consumption."
    • True - Although roughly 3% percent of the earth's surface water is fresh, over 2% is tied up in polar ice caps and snow on mountain tops.
  11. "Clean water is everyone’s responsibility."
    • True