Chances are, you’ll be drinking some of the snow that fell last week.
Our developed First World society insulates us from the long process that lets us turn on a faucet and get clean water. As far as we can see, the faucet opens and the water appears; we send it down the drain and it’s gone. However, there’s a long and interesting backstory. Human use is only one step, a brief modification of the natural water cycle.
The Laramie River supplies much of the city’s water, according to the City of Laramie website. The Wyoming Geological Survey map of state water resources shows this river rises from snowfall in the Rocky Mountains of southern Wyoming and northern Colorado. This means every time you wash your hands or flush a toilet, those water drops started their journey drifting to the ground as snowflakes in the Rocky Mountains.
Through the winter, snow piles deeper and deeper in the mountains. When the spring melt comes, the drifts become soft and soggy and start to disappear. The water soaks into the ground until it is saturated, then flows over the surface. Tiny streams join each other to make bigger creeks, which flow into mountain lakes or rivers. Water ouzels, little black birds with a ringing call, live in the streams. Fish live in the lakes, and ducks and geese prepare to nest. Beavers chew down aspens and build dams across the streams.
As the Laramie River and its tributaries run out of the mountains and along the Front Range, the water supports towns, cities and ranches. At this time of year, Laramie uses about 4.5 million gallons of water in a day, according to the City of Laramie website. This much water would cover the football field at War Memorial Stadium to a depth of almost 10.5 feet. The city must treat, deliver and drain away that water, all over Laramie every day.
This requires a large pipe network and treatment plants, which are a major benefit of living in a wealthy First World society. Water prices vary in Laramie depending on the size of the meter and the end use of the water, but the city reports that the median residential customer uses about 4,000 gallons and pays about $51 per month for water and sewer services. That is $1.70 every day, which doesn’t sound like much, but the World Bank reports that 14.5 percent of people in the world live on less than $1.25 a day.
This isn’t to say we should feel guilty about having clean cheap water, but we should be aware that it doesn’t come out of nowhere. Natural cycles bring the water to Wyoming and down the Laramie River and expensive infrastructure treats and delivers it.
The snow that falls in the mountains today runs through your house next summer. When you turn on the faucet, you’re washing your hands with a mountain lake and cooking dinner with a thundercloud.
The Laramie River winds through semi-desert toward the city of Laramie. The river rises in Colorado and is the major source of water for Laramie.
