Water Use
Water Use
Water is everywhere, which is fortunate for all of humanity, as water is essential for life. Even though water is not always available in the needed quantity and quality for all people everywhere, people have learned to get and use water for all of their needs, from drinking, cleaning, irrigating crops, producing electricity, and for just having fun.
Water Use in the United States, 2015
Water Use in the United States, 2015
The water in the Nation's rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and underground aquifers are vitally important to our everyday life. Find out about water use in the United States in 2015.
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Livestock Water Use
Livestock water use is water associated with livestock watering, feedlots, dairy operations, and other on-farm needs.
Public Supply Water Use
It is likely the water you use at home is brought to you by a public water-supply system. These are agencies, such as your local county government, that find and get the water that is delivered to not only your home, but to many businesses and industries. Most of the population of the United States gets their water this way.
Domestic Water Use
Domestic water use is water used for indoor and outdoor household purposes— all the things you do at home: drinking, preparing food, bathing, washing clothes and dishes, brushing your teeth, watering the garden, and even washing the dog. At the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), domestic water use refers to the amount of water that is "self-supplied", or water withdrawn directly by users, such as from...
Industrial Water Use
The industries that produce metals, wood and paper products, chemicals, gasoline and oils, and those invaluable grabber utensils you use to get your ring (which also needed water to manufacture) out of the garbage disposal are major users of water.
Mining Water Use
Like all other industries, mining corporations need water to make bare rock give up its valuable minerals.
Temperature and Water
Water temperature plays an important role in almost all USGS water science. Water temperature exerts a major influence on biological activity and growth, has an effect on water chemistry, can influence water quantity measurements, and governs the kinds of organisms that live in water bodies.
Groundwater Decline and Depletion
Groundwater is a valuable resource both in the United States and throughout the world. Groundwater depletion, a term often defined as long-term water-level declines caused by sustained groundwater pumping, is a key issue associated with groundwater use. Many areas of the United States are experiencing groundwater depletion.
The Story of Water in Dryville
Read on about our fictional tale of how YOU establish a new town in the desert and the role water plays in all aspects of the process.
Hydroelectric Power: How it Works
So just how do we get electricity from water? Actually, hydroelectric and coal-fired power plants produce electricity in a similar way. In both cases a power source is used to turn a propeller-like piece called a turbine.
Hydroelectric Power: Advantages of Production and Usage
Nothing is perfect on Earth, and that includes the production of electricity using flowing water. Hydroelectric-production facilities are indeed not perfect (a dam costs a lot to build and also can have negative effects on the environment and local ecology), but there are a number of advantages of hydroelectric-power production as opposed to fossil-fuel power production.
Three Gorges Dam: The World's Largest Hydroelectric Plant
The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China is the world's biggest hydroelectric facility.
Land Subsidence
Yes, land subsidence is responsible for you getting a little dizzy when you look at the first picture in the banner above, the one of a line of buildings. The land these buildings sit on has fallen and compacted because large amounts of groundwater have been withdrawn from the aquifers below ground. Land subsidence is a human-induced event.