Peter Gleick, water analyst extraordinare. and leader of The Pacific Institute, reveals that water consumption in the US of A has actually declined slightly in recent years, according to the USGS.
This is a big deal, as he says, for this reason:
Water planners are trained to assume that as population and economies grow, water use must inevitably grow. This assumption is why we hear the drumbeat of calls for new supply, new supply, new supply. We argue that this is false -- it is possible to improve the efficiency of water use, as our studies repeatedly show, and such improvements eliminate the need for expensive and environmentally damaging new supply.
Gleick adds:
If each American today still used 1,940 gallons per day (as we did in 1975), population growth would have caused the U.S. to use an additional 165 billion gallons per day. That's equal to more than 12 new Colorado Rivers -- or enough water for everyone in California, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, and Michigan. We could never have supplied that much more water without destroying our remaining rivers, lakes, aquifers, and aquatic ecosystems. Conservation and efficiency improvements have saved our butts.
Sometimes I wonder if enviros and agencies need to learn how to trumpet their successes.
