Water, water, everwhere and not a drop to drink

My research project is on rainwater harvesting and gray water reuse. As I am going through my project there are some very eye opening numbers that I came across that I thought I would share with you:

1. The United States consumes 408 billion gallons of water per day.

2. In the last 50 years there has been movement toward public supply. In 1950, 62% of US populaiton was served by public supply, while in 2000, 85% of US populaiton was served by public supply.

3. In 2000, 43.5 million people in the US (approx. 15 of the populaiton), supplied their own water.

4. Out of the 50 states, Texas is the 2nd largest water consumer behind California. Texas uses 30 billion gallons of water per day.

5. California, Texas, and Florida consume 25% of the water used by the US.

6. City of Austin uses 140 million gallons of water a day.

7. The per capita water use in austin is about 165 gallons per day.

More on water, next week.