<p>Some of the findings over the period since 1950, when the USGS started tracking water usage:</p>
<p>Since 1950, water usage has increased 126% while the population has increased 89%. All of the increase in water usage happened between 1950 and 1975.</p>
<p>Water usage reported every five years since 1975 has been (in millions of gallons per day): 420, 440, 399, 408, 402, and in 2000, 408. In other words, while the population and economy continue to grow, water usage remains mostly unchanged. </p>
<p>Since domestic uses represent less than 7% of total water usage, most of this conservation has come from industry – largely in better use of cooling water in power plants. (It turns out that household water saving measures really don’t matter – at most a reduction of .5-1% of total water use, although it is difficult to dig that out. You can see why the government doesn’t want to admit the futility of focusing on retail of use of water – it is not consistent with their propaganda.)</p>
<p>Water usage for all purposes (domestic, industry, agriculture) hovers just above 400 million gallons per day. About 4,200 million gallons per day falls on the US in precipitation, on average. No, I don’t know if the precipitation includes Alaska.</p>
<p>WashDad, I heard that when domestic users around Seattle followed the calls of our leaders and cut down on water usage, local water districts had to raise prices to stay afloat financially. Do not know if it is true.</p>
<p>Water usage may have a linear correlation to population, However, the delivery and disposal of this water is not linear. When the system reaches its capacity, that’s it or something has to go.</p>
<p>Then the government will drag out the sewer scarecrow out of its special interests closet and say “We need another sewage processing plant or we all going to drown in our own excrement!” Check out Brightwater story in WA - total disaster in the making. Costs $1.3B to build this megacrapper on top of an active fault line. I’m perfectly fine with my 9-yr old septic system, but in a few years the government will come and tell me to pay $50K for mandatory sewer hook up. Then it will make me pay sewer charges even for the water I use to water my garden (which never makes it to the sewer but evaporates and comes back as distilled rainwater). We here are fed stories how our sewer capacity is going to be caput with all the new construction in the area, but if more than half of the water currently used never actually makes it to the sewer, the current capacity is going to be fine for many years to come. Why take away my septic tank when it works just fine and it makes me think twice of what I pour down the drain, whereas many folks on sewer lines would be OK with pouring battery acid down their toilet!</p>
<p>Washdad, interesting. We all seem to fall victims to the myths and propaganda about water (and energy) use. When I lived in Arizona there were major campaigns to reduce residential water use. It was really almost a joke. Rivers of water were being dumped onto the desert in order to grow cotton. Taxpayers footed the bills for this wasteful use of water and then were told to conserve.</p>
<p>^. Complain to McCain, farm subsidies and the Republicans. A program that was started as a Democratic agenda in the F. Roosevelt era and attacked by being socialist, is now a favorite"pork" for the Republicans.</p>
<p>We were in Scottsdale AZ a few weeks ago, and there seemed to be constant references to the “Desert Lifestyle.” I think they are adjusting to use less water. Many yards have no lawns, but gravel and rocks and a few cactus instead. The golf course was being watered almost continuously (they were reseeding for winter) but we were told the water being used was not potable.</p>
<p>“Water usage reported every five years since 1975 has been (in millions of gallons per day): 420, 440, 399, 408, 402, and in 2000, 408. In other words, while the population and economy continue to grow, water usage remains mostly unchanged.”</p>
<p>The only problem is,“The water-use data are in billion gallons per day not millions of gallons/day”</p>
<p>There’s a classic book, beautifully written, about the history of water rights and development in the west. Cadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner, now unfortunately deceased. Essential reading for anyone living in the arid west. </p>
<p>Phoenix was developed with the intent of making it look like the midwest, green lawns and deciduous trees. Over decades, they’re gradually getting a clue, that they should emulate the arid look of Tucson instead, which has never had the water resources of Phoenix. Growing up there, we never treated water as a scarce commodity.</p>
<p>Simba’s right, the figures for domestic consumption (residential use) were reported in millions of gallons per day, but total consumption for all uses is reported in billions of gallons per day. The figures are as reported by the USGS, but I reported the wrong units of measure.</p>