Surface Water Use in the United States
Science Center Objects
The Nation's surface-water resources—the water in the nation's rivers, streams, creeks, lakes, and reservoirs—are vitally important to our everyday life.
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Surface water serves many purposes
The main uses of surface water include drinking-water and other public uses, irrigation uses, and for use by the thermoelectric-power industry to cool electricity-generating equipment. The majority of water used for thermoelectric power, public supply, irrigation, mining, and industrial purposes came from surface-water sources. Of all the water used in the United States in 2015 (about 322,000 million gallons per day (Mgal/d), fresh and saline), about 74 percent (237,000 Mgal/d) came from surface-water sources. (All 2015 water use information is from the report Estimated use of water in the United States in 2015.) Water from groundwater sources accounted for the remaining 26 percent.
About 70 percent of the freshwater used in the United States in 2015 came from surface-water sources. The other 30 percent came from groundwater. Surface water is an important natural resource used for many purposes, especially irrigation and public supply (supplying people with drinking water and for everyday uses).
Surface-water use, by category of use, 2015
Surface-water use, by state, 2015
Trends in surface-water withdrawals, 1950-2015
Source: Estimated Water Use in the United States in 2015