US Uses Less Water Now Than 35 Years Ago

Description

The US Geological Survey released a study on Wednesday showing that Americans used less water in 2005 than 35 years ago—despite a 30 percent population increase. Most of the decline is attributable to alternative cooling methods at power plants and to more efficient irrigation systems. (The AAAS reminds us that some commercial farmers in the US have doubled the crops they grow with a given amount of irrigation water by using sub-surface drip irrigation.) In 2005, 297 million Americans used 410 billion gallons of water per day. That's 5 percent less than in 1980, the year of peak water use, when there were 227 million Americans. Or ~1,400 gallons of water per day per American in 2005, compared with ~2,000 gallons per person per day in 1980. Not bad. And a reminder that trends can be managed, not just suffered. Link var addthis_pub="the lookout";

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http://www.webdigger.org/2009/11/us-uses-less-water-now-than-35-years.html

http://www.webdigger.org/2009/11/us-uses-less-water-now-than-35-years.html