The USGS collects information on the following major water use categories:
Public water supply refers to water withdrawn by public and private water suppliers and delivered to users. Public water suppliers provide water to domestic, commercial, and industrial users, to facilities generating thermoelectric power, for public use, and occasionally for mining and irrigation. A public water supply is a public or private water system that provides water to at least 25 people or has a minimum of 15 service connections. Examples of public water supply systems include those that serve cities and towns, military bases, apartment complexes, and large mobile home parks.
Domestic self-supplied water use includes water from individual wells or cisterns used for household purposes such as drinking, food preparation, bathing, washing clothes and dishes, flushing toilets, car washing, and watering lawns and gardens.
Commercial water use includes water used by commercial facilities such as hotels, motels, restaurants, office buildings, government and military facilities, hospitals, educational institutions, and retail sales stores. Use in office buildings primarily is for sanitation, maintenance, and aesthetic appeal. Specific uses of water include toilet flushing, air-conditioning, washing floors and other surfaces, fountains and lawn watering. Lawn watering and air-conditioning use more water than sanitation or cleaning, so commercial water use will be larger for business parks in a warm, dry climate with large areas of grass than in cooler, more humid areas. The age of the building also affects use. Old buildings often have large-volume-flow sanitary fixtures whereas new buildings commonly have low-flow fixtures designed to conserve water.
Industrial water use includes water used to manufacture products such as steel, chemical, and paper, as well as water used in petroleum and metals refining. Industrial water use includes process and production water, boiler feed, air conditioning, cooling, sanitation, washing, transport of materials, and steam generation for internal use. It does not include power generation for sale to others, mining of minerals, or the extraction of crude petroleum and gases, which are included in different water-use categories.
Irrigation water use includes all water artificially applied to farm, orchard, pasture, and horticultural crops. In addition to normal plant growth, irrigation water can be used for germination, frost and freeze protection, chemical application, crop cooling, harvesting, or dust suppression. Irrigation also includes water used to irrigate public and private golf courses. Irrigation water can be self-supplied or purchased from an irrigation company, irrigation district, or other supplier.
Thermoelectric power generation includes water used in generating electric power when the following fuel types are used: fossil, nuclear, biomass, solid waste, or geothermal energy. A thermoelectric plant heats water in a boiler until it turns into steam. The steam is used to turn the turbine-generator, which produces electricity. After the steam is used to spin the turbine-generator, it is sent to the condenser to be cooled back into water. Most of the water used in thermoelectric power generation is used in the condenser to cool the steam back into water. Then the condensed water is pumped back to the steam generator to become steam again while the cooling water is discharged as return flow or is recycled through cooling ponds or towers.
Other uses include noted by USGS include water for livestock, aquaculture, and mining. USGS provides information on all of these types of water use, as well as guidance on how water-use data should be collected and reported:
USGS also has an extensive bibliography of reports on water use throughout the United States:
USGS water use data for the United States is available at the following website:
Historical information (since 1950) is found at: (http://water.usgs.gov/watuse/50years.html).
This website includes data for total water use and use-by-type estimates – for the entire nation, for individual states, and by county. Recent county data are listed in Excel spreadsheets for each state at:
This website also indicates whether the water for each of these uses comes from a surface water source or from groundwater.