Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
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Adding to the stress on water supplies from energy production,
many sources of alternative fuels are in geographic areas with
limited and already stressed water resources.
Water shortages and concerns have become a way of life from
the Atlantic to the Pacifi c and from the Canadian border to the
Mexican one, with various factions fi ghting over this shrinking
twenty-fi rst-century resource.
Billions of gallons of wasted water wash away every year because
of antiquated infrastructure.
Water shortages hit the pocketbook hard. The National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration identifi ed eight specifi c water
shortages resulting from drought or heat waves over the past
20 years, each costing $1 billion or more.
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NOTES
1. U.S. Census Bureau, “U.S. and World Population Clocks—POPClocks,”
http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html.
2. U.S. Geological Survey, “The Water Cycle: Water Science Basics,” http://
ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercyclesummary.html#global.
3. J. F. Kenny, N. L. Barber, S. S. Hutson, K. S. Linsey, J. K. Lovelace, and M. A.
Maupin, “Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2005: U.S. Geological
Survey Circular 1344” (2009), http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1344/pdf/c1344.pdf.
4. Ibid.
5. Michael F. Craun, Gunther F. Craun, Rebecca L. Cauldron, and Michael J.
Beach, “Waterborne Outbreaks Reported in the United States,”
Journal of
Water and Health
4. Suppl. 06 (2006): 22-24, http://epa.gov/nheerl/articles/
2006/waterborne_disease/waterborne_outbreaks.pdf.
6. U.S. General Accounting Office, “Freshwater Supply: States' Views of How
Federal Agencies Could Help Them Meet the Challenges of Expected
Shortages,” Report to Congressional Requesters, GAO-03-514 ( July 2003): 8,
http://gao.gov/new.items/d03514.pdf.
7. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climatic Data
Center, “State of the Climate National Overview August 2010, ” http://lwf
.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=national.
8. Ibid.
9. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Great Lakes Environmental
Research Laboratory, “Great Lakes Water Level Observations,” http://www.glerl
.noaa.gov/data/now/wlevels/levels.html.
