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Water Use in the United States

This section of the Water Science site is about how we use water on an everyday basis. After all, when it comes down to it, how we use water is what is really important to the average person (I know how important it is to have a swimming pool full of fresh, clean water in the summer). In the graphic below, you can choose from some general water-use topics on the left side of the pipe, or from the categories of water use on the right side. A text menu of the topics is provided below the graphic.

 Summary of water use in the United States in 2000.

Water-use topics (menu is at bottom of screen, too) Ground water Surface water Domestic water use Comercial water use Public supply water use Irrigation water use Industrial water use Livestock water use Mining water use Power water use Hydroelectric Wastewater treatment Pie chart of total water use, 2000 Summary chart of 2000 water use Bar chart: Trends in water use Map gallery Data library Fictional tale of Dryville
General topics: Summary 1995 summary diagram
Trends diagram Maps Data Storytime
Categories: Ground water Surface water Domestic Commercial Public supply Irrigation Industry
Livestock Mining Electricity production Hydroelectric power Wastewater treatment

Water arrow Note: We report water use in million of gallons of water used per day (Mgal/d). Find out how much a million gallons is.

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Take Pride in America home page. USA.gov U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/wateruse.html
Page Contact Information: Howard Perlman
Page Last Modified: Friday, 07-Nov-2008 15:46:48 EST