Overview
The USGS conducts water usage studies for the USA every five years. The latest available statistics are for 2000 and indicate that the United States uses about 408 billion gallons per day (Bgpd) of water annually, of which 345 Bgpd was withdrawals of fresh water.
Irrigation and thermoelectric power for steam generation are the two largest users of fresh water in the United States. Irrigation accounts for 137 Bgpd and thermoelectric power 136 Bgpd.
Public supply plus domestic use from private wells accounts for 47 Bgpd. Industrial and mining use is about 21 Bgpd.
The numbers on a regional basis have more meaning as drought affects the traditional supplies of surface and aquifer water. Conservation measures in the public supply as well as alternative farming and irrigation methods are being applied and have been successful as the entire United States uses less water than it did 25 years ago. Even so, in some cases conservation measures are not enough. Where the supplies are not adequate to meet the demand, water rights are used to allocate diminishing supplies, but these can be disputed and often trigger lawsuits. The situation is not helped by inconsistent rulings by water districts.
In other parts of the world with large populations such as India and China the water resource and usage problems are even more acute.
USGS Water Use
Supporting Views
Supporting viewpoints are those that have raised concern and alarm about the indiscriminate high withdrawal rates from existing aquifers, rivers and lakes, and are pushing for more regulatory control. This problem is primarily in the western United States and other areas of the US and world with arid or semi-arid climates that rely on rivers and underground resources. Water restrictions on use and conservation measures need to be enforced, but fairness of allocation can be a problem where regulations are vague.
For example, the water in the giant High Plains aquifer (also called Ogallala aquifer) covering a huge expanse from South Dakota to the Texas Panhandle was deposited during the ice age. Recharge is extremely slow, but the withdrawal rate is about 420 billion cubic feet per year, a volume equivalent to the annual flow of 18 Colorado Rivers. In eastern Colorado, much of the agricultural usage is for corn crops to support the new ethanol industry, but the Republican River and the underlying Ogallala aquifer are being depleted at a high rate that cannot sustain itself.
Fred Pearce in his classic book, When the River Run Dry, discusses another aspect of water…what economists call “virtual water”, the water that it takes to grow specific agricultural products. As we expend valuable water resources to grow and export crops, in effect we are exporting the water used to grow those crops. The United States exports a third of all the water it withdraws from the natural environment as virtual water…the water used to grow the grain for export and feed the beef for export. Recognition of the value of the water used to grow certain types of crops is receiving more attention as competition for supplies in arid and semi-arid areas heats up.
Supporting Websites
Newsweek, Liquid Gold
Thinking Sustainable Development
Opposing Views
Those opposing restrictions on water usage are generally those that are pushing for less regulatory control of water rights and support a market based approach to establishing value of water. In the eastern states, riparian water rights prevail, that is water is allocated based on frontage on the water source. In the western states, prior appropriation or first in time, first in right applies. Those that were there first have the water rights and priority over those that come later. However, to discourage hoarding, “use it or lose it” clauses are in place, but this also encourages waste and inefficiency.
Supporters of a market based approach of allocation of water rights state that having the ability to sell or trade water rights would establish a true value for the water and encourage more efficiency in the system. Water in effect would go to the highest value uses, and discourage wasteful uses. Clear ownership of water rights would be established, thereby lessening the litigation over water rights that drag on in the courts.
The potential buyers of water supplies, including aquifers, are big cities in the arid southwest with money to spend. And with the increasing value of water, many owners do indeed sell their rights.
Opposing Websites
Property and Environment Research Center
World Bank
Policy Research Initiative, Canada |