Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Water: No Cholesterol, Fat Free, Zero Sugar
You never miss the water till the well runs dry.
—
Rowland Howard,
You Never Miss the Water
, 1876
The amount of water used in the United States is staggering. In 2005, it
was 410 million gallons
per day
, not including the 15 to 20 percent lost
to leaky pipes. Total consumption has varied by only 3 percent since
1990. Per capita use peaked in 1970 at 1,815 gallons but has since
declined continuously to 1,363 in 2005, a result of conservation by
industry, agriculture, and home owners (table 1.1). Power plants use
about half of the 410 million gallons, agriculture 31 percent, homes and
businesses use 11 percent, and the remaining 8 percent includes use by
mining, livestock, aquaculture, and individual domestic wells.
1
But despite conservation efforts, water shortages are spreading, and
experts believe we are moving into an era of water scarcity throughout
the United States. We are used to hearing of shortages in the arid and
semiarid Southwest, but there are now problems in the Midcontinental
grain belt, South Carolina, New York City, southern Florida, and
other areas most Americans think of as water rich. In 2003, the General
Accounting Offi ce published a survey that found that water managers in
thirty-six states anticipate water shortages locally, regionally, or state-
wide within the next ten years. There already is a tristate water war
among Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.
2
Unfortunately, the gravity of the situation has not yet set in for most
Americans, who tend to view water shortages as temporary—the result
of short-term droughts, poor water management by local authorities, or
an unusually light snowfall in mountain areas. The erroneous nature of
this view is refl ected in the fact that between 2002 and 2007, municipal
water use rates in the United States increased by 27 percent. People in
other nations have seen even larger increases: 32 percent in the United
