Total Water Use in the U.S. Is Down Since 1975
From Marginal Revolution:
It is a little known fact that the United States today uses far less water per person, and less water in total, than we did twenty-five years ago. It must be due to more efficient irrigation.
That is water expert Peter Gleick, quoted in the excellent article “The Last Drop,” (not on-line), from the 23 October The New Yorker.
Here is more detail.
* Total water use in the US in 2000 is lower than it was in 1975.
* Per-capita water use in the US in 2000 is lower than it has been since the mid-1950s.
* The economic productivity of water (dollars of Gross National Product per unit of water used) is higher than it has ever been: it has more than doubled since the 1970s, to $6.20 per hundred gallons used.