Reply #49: I would be more concerned with waste through irrigation

[Quixote1818]

The vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority of water waste is thorough farming. Farmers need to start going to drip systems for more crops.


A: In 2000, about 346,000 million gallons per day of fresh water was withdrawn from our surface- and ground-water sources, such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and wells. Would you think that two uses of water, irrigation and thermoelectric-power production, would account for about 79 percent of water used in 2000? Here's the breakdown by water-use category:

Irrigation: 40 percent
Thermoelectric power: 39 percent
Public Supply: 13 percent
Industry: 5 percent
Livestock, aquaculture: less than 1 percent
Domestic (self-supplied): 1 percent
Mining: 1 percent

Link: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/qausage.html#HDR1