Maria Mihalcea

Clasa a IX-a A

Waters in The United States of America

Student: Mihalcea Maria

Professor: Veronica Bardu

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Maria Mihalcea
Clasa a IX-a A

Waters in the United States of America

The waters of the United States is a phrase used in the Clean Water Act and other legal contexts to
refer to various bodies of water controlled by the Federal government of the United States in various
ways. The term has been the subject of extensive litigation and political controversy.

The Clean Water Act

The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution.
Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's
waters by preventing point and nonpoint pollution sources, providing assistance to publicly owned
treatment works for the improvement of wastewater treatment, and maintaining the integrity of
wetlands. It is one of the United States' first and most influential modern environmental laws.

USA hydrography
More than seven percent of the United States is covered in water. We'll identify the major lakes and
rivers in the United States and explain where they fit in the United States' geography.

Land vs. Water

The United States is the world's fourth largest country, covering just over 3.8 million square miles. But
not all of that coverage is land. Measured by square mile, over 7% of the United States is water. If you
were to put all that water together, into a single lake, it would be larger than the state of Texas!

The major lakes

Located in the Northern United States, ranging between Minnesota and New York, the five Great
Lakes are Lake Superior, Lake Ontario, Lake Heron, Lake Erie, and Lake Michigan. They are
connected by rivers and other, much smaller lakes in the 'Great Lakes Region,' and cover over 94,000
square miles of surface area, although some of that is technically in Canada.

After the Great Lakes, there are three other lakes in the United States that we could call 'pretty big
lakes.' They aren't as large as the Great Lakes, but they certainly should be included in the category of
'major lakes.' These lakes are the Great Salt Lake in Utah, Iliamna Lake in Alaska, and Lake
Okeechobee in Florida.

An important part of understanding the river systems in the United States is knowing about the
continental divide. The continental divide is an imaginary line, drawn from north to south, through the
Rocky Mountains of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. It's important to know about
the continental divide because all of the river systems west of it flow into the Pacific Ocean and all of
the river system east of it flow into the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean.

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Maria Mihalcea
Clasa a IX-a A

As you would expect, each side of the continental divide has one or two major river systems. Rivers
can be referred to as 'systems' because smaller streams and rivers, called tributaries, join and flow into
increasingly larger rivers, until they flow into an ocean. In the western United States, the two major
river systems are the Colorado River in the southwest U.S. and the Columbia River in the northwest.

The largest river system is the Mississippi River, which is made up of tributaries from both the
Midwest and the eastern United States. Some smaller river systems, for example, the Rio Grande and
Hudson River, exist, but are significantly smaller than the Mississippi.

Beautiful waterfalls in the USA

USA has the most diverse and breath taking waterfall landscapes in the world. A few honorable
mentions are:

Horsetail Firefall, Yosemite National Park

McWay Falls, Big Sur, California;
Havasu Falls, Arizona;
Ramona Falls, Oregon;
Niagara Falls, Canada;
Hamilton Pool, Texas;
Watkins Glen State Park, New York.

In conclusion, USA is one of the best countries to visit if you want to explore the world and be amazed
by its beauty. It has the most diverse landscapes due to the fact that it is gifted with all the ladnforms
and climate types.

Bibliography

Places to see: http://www.placestoseeinyourlifetime.com/29-most-beautiful-waterfalls-15697/

Study.com/academy: http://study.com/academy/lesson/major-lakes-river-systems-in-the-
united-states.html
Wikipedia.com: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waters_of_the_United_States
Reddit (pohoto source)
National Geographic (photo source):
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/02/photo-of-the-day-best-of-
january/
Tumblr.com (photo source)