Water Use Quick Facts

Water-Use Quick Facts, 2000

Nearly 90 percent of the 16 million residents of Florida obtained their drinking water from public supply water systems; 13 million of these residents relied on ground water as their primary source of drinking water.

Nearly 4 billion gallons per day in 2000 was used to irrigate 1.9 million acres of Florida agricultural farmland, with citrus and sugarcane accounting for 2.8 billion gallons per day of the water used.

In 2000, about 0.4 billion gallons per day was used to irrigate more than 1,100 Florida golf courses; slightly more than 25 percent of this water was obtained from reclaimed wastewater.
Slightly more than 12.6 billion gallons per day was used to generate nearly 200,000 kilowatt hours of electricity in Florida during 2000; nearly all of this water is returned to its source.
The following Florida counties withdrew the greatest amount of water for the six main water use categories:
Miami-Dade (public supply)
Marion (domestic self-supplied)
Polk (commercial-industrial self-supplied)
Palm Beach (agricultural irrigation)
Palm Beach (recreational irrigation)
Escambia (power generation - freshwater)
Hillsborough (power generation - saline water)