Thermoelectric power plant water withdrawals and associated attributes for three Federal datasets in the United States, 2010

This dataset combines three Federal datasets of thermoelectric, non-industrial, power plant water withdrawals and associated plant information for the United States in 2010, excluding Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Historically, thermoelectric water withdrawal has been estimated by the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) through surveys of plant operator-reported data, and the Department of Interior's U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) 5-year water-use reports including data compiled from state water agencies, plant operators, and the EIA. Recently, the USGS developed models for estimating withdrawal at thermoelectric plants to provide independent estimates from plant operator-reported data. The three Federal datasets include plant-level data for 1,349 plants derived from EIA's 2010 Form EIA-860 and Form EIA-923 databases, USGS 2010 compilation-reported data (hereafter referred to as the USGS-compilation dataset), and USGS 2010 model-estimated data (hereafter referred to as the USGS-model dataset). The plant-level USGS-compilation data provided in this dataset were disaggregated from county-level data published in USGS Circular 1405 (Maupin and others, 2014). The USGS-model data and the EIA data presented in this dataset were previously published in USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5184 (Diehl and Harris, 2014). The year 2010 was chosen because it is the most recent year the USGS 5-year compilation report was published and the only year for which the USGS model estimates have been calculated.

Diehl, T.H., and Harris, M.A., 2014, Withdrawal and consumption of water by thermoelectric power plants in the United States, 2010: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 20145184, 28 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20145184.

Maupin, M.A., Kenny, J.F., Hutson, S.S., Lovelace, J.K., Barber, N.L., and Linsey, K.S., 2014, Estimated use of water in the United States in 2010: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1405, 56 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/cir1405.