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<br />'e <br /> <br />@ <br />15. DON'T pUMP IT! <br /> <br />Take A Guess. <br />Which of these would you want in your drinking water? <br />A) Furniture polish B) Paint thinner C) Motor oil <br /> <br />If you dug a hole as far as you could go, would you ever <br />reach China? Of course not. But you would reach water! <br />Underground, there's lots of fresh <br />water. We need to take care of it, to <br />keep it clean for all living things. <br />How can you take care of <br />something underground? <br />Simple-just make sure <br />nothing harmful is <br />spilled on the <br />ground that will <br />soak down into <br />our water! <br /> <br /> <br />Did You Know <br /> <br />· Most of the water in <br />the world isn't <br />drinkable! <br /> <br />· The oceans cover <br />213 of the Earth, but <br />ocean water is salty, <br />so no one can drink <br />it. <br /> <br />5Z <br />Answer: None, of course. But if we don't dispose of them properly, they end up in our water! <br /> <br />@ <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />· There's a lot of water in the polar ice caps, but we can't <br />drink ice. And we can't just melt a part of the world. <br />· So what's left for us? The water in lakes, rivers, streams <br />.. .and what's underground. That's called groundwater. <br />· Where does your water corne from? Do you know? More <br />than half the people in America get theirs from groundwa- <br />ter. In fact, 90% of all the water on Earth that human be- <br />ings can drink right now is underground. <br />· It's really easy to pollute groundwater. Just dumping com- <br />mon, everyday things on the ground can do it because the <br />Earth is like a sponge that soaks everything in. <br />· For example, a gallon of paint or a quart of motor oil can <br />seep into the Earth and pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking <br />water. And a spilled gallon of gasoline can pollute 750,000 <br />gallons of water! The poison (called insecticide) that farmers <br />and gardeners put out to kill bugs also can soak into the <br />ground and pollute our water. <br /> <br />What You Can Do <br />· Be careful about what you spill on the Earth. You can't <br />avoid some accidents, but don't dump harmful liquids onto <br />the ground on purpose. <br />· When you're not sure what to do with a can of oil, or <br />paint or gasoline, bring it to an adult. Ask the adult to <br />make sure the lid is on tight, and the can should be stored <br />where smaller kids can't get to it. But the can shouldn't be <br />thrown in the garbage! It should be saved for a special gar- <br />bage pick-up called "toxic waste collection." <br />· You probably won't be using much paint, motor oil or <br />gasoline soon... but it's not too early to think about this. <br /> <br />53 <br />