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Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000
Industrial
Industrial water use includes water used for such purposes as fabricating, processing, washing, diluting, cooling, or transporting a product; incorporating water into a product; or for sanitation needs within the manufacturing facility. Some industries that use large amounts of water produce such commodities as food, paper, chemicals, refined petroleum, or primary metals. Water for industrial use may be delivered from a public supplier or be self-supplied. In this report, industrial use refers to self-supplied industrial withdrawals only. Withdrawals were reported as freshwater or saline water. Public-supply deliveries to industrial users and consumptive use were not reported for 2000.
Industrial withdrawals are listed by State in table 10.
For 2000, withdrawals
were an estimated 19,700 Mgal/d, or 22,100 thousand acre-feet per year. Industrial
withdrawals were about 5 percent of total withdrawals and about 9 percent of total
withdrawals for all categories excluding thermoelectric power. Surface water
was the source for 82 percent of total industrial withdrawals. Nearly all
(92 percent) of the surface-water withdrawals and nearly all (99 percent)
of the ground-water withdrawals for industrial use were freshwater. For
2000, total industrial withdrawals were 11 percent less than during 1995.
The geographic distribution of total, total surface-water, and total ground-water withdrawals for
industrial use is shown in figure 10.
Louisiana,
Indiana, and Texas accounted for almost 38 percent of total industrial withdrawals. The
largest fresh surface-water withdrawals were in Louisiana and Indiana, which together
accounted for 32 percent of the total fresh surface-water withdrawals. The largest
fresh ground-water withdrawals were in Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, which together
accounted for 23 percent of the total fresh ground-water withdrawals. Texas accounted
for 71 percent of the saline surface-water withdrawals for industry.
Sources of data for industrial water use included individual facilities and State or Federal permit programs that require reporting of industrial withdrawals or return flows. Industrial withdrawals also were estimated using employment numbers classified by industry group and per employee water-use coefficients.
Water Use in the United States | USGS Water Resources of the United States
For more information: wu-info@usgs.gov