Source, use, and disposition of water in Florida, 1980

An average of 21,206 million gallons of water was withdrawn for use in Florida each day for the combined use for public supplies , rural domestic and livestock, industrial self-supplied, irrigation, and thermoelectric power generation. This amount, broken down into 7,309 millions gallons per day of freshwater and 13,897 million gallons per day of saline water, indicates an increase of more than 40 percent for all uses during the 10-year period 1970-80. The largest user of freshwater in Florida was for irrigation--2,997 million gallons per day which also is responsible for the greatest consumption, 1,530 million gallons on the average each day or about half the water applied. The remaining use of freshwater amounted to 1,859 million gallons per day for thermoelectric power generation (which also used about 13.7 billion gallons per day of saline water); 1,361 million gallons per day of public supply; 797 million gallons per day for industrial use other than thermoelectric power generation; and 310 million gallons per day, on the average, for rural domestic and livestock use. (USGS)