Water+Use+in+the+U.S.

How would climate change affect the amount of water available to you?
Changes in temperature cause different things to happen with the water that is available to me. When it gets warmer outside, then more glaciers and snow melt making water more available to the people that process water and make clean water available to me. However, warmer temperatures will also decrease the amount of water that is available to me. With higher temperatures there is more evaporation, with more evaporation there is less water available to me. Increases in temperature affects the time that there is snow covering the ground, which affects the stream flow. Glaciers are also expected to continue to get smaller, and will eventually disappear all together. This is bad for the amount of water that is available to me that water actually starts to decrease.

(e.g. how much water d we use compared to other countries?)
Minnesota – 2,000 to 5,000 million Texas – 20,000 to 52,000 million California – 20,000 to 52,000 million Nevada – 2,000 to 5,000 million Washington – 5,000 to 10,000 million Florida – 20,000 to 5,000 million Virginia – 5,000 to 10,000 million Illinois – 10,000 to 20,000 million North Dakota – 0 to 2,000 million

Compared to other countries we use a lower amount of water. Compared to Texas, California, Florida, and New York we use a very low amount of water. They are using more water than we are by 18,000 to 15,000 million.

Where do we get our drinking water?
(How is it cleaned before arriving to our homes?) The main source of our water supply is the Mississippi River. In fact, we take about 21 billion gallons of gas out of it annually. The water that is taken from the river undergoes a cleaning process. The process includes filtration, disinfection, and sedimentation. Fluoride is also added to our drinking water to help prevent tooth decay. Minneapolis also softens our water at a centralized softening plant. The material that is removed from the water is used to help neutralize their soil on Minnesota and Wisconsin farmlands. Tests are performed on our water throughout the treatment process. About 500 chemical, physical, and bacteriological examinations are done every day. When the water is done being clean and treated, it is stored in a reservoir. []

Comparing high and low water use in states
The three states that use the most water in the United States are California, Florida, and Texas. They use between 20,000 (million) to 52,000 (million) gallons every day. The states who use the lowest amounts of water are North, and South Dakota, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Alaska, and Hawaii. They use 0 to 2000 million gallons everyday. I would assume that the difference in consumption is due to the huge difference in population. California, Florida, and Texas, are all very high populated states. Many more people live in them than the smaller states (such as New Hampshire and Vermont). California uses the most water. And most of that water goes towards irrigation. Texas uses most of its water on power-production industries and irrigation.

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/maptotal.html

What do you think accounts for differences in water consumption?
Water consumption to me seems to very based on state population. The states with the highest amount of water are California, Texas, and Florida. Once I also looked up the percentages of what water use goes towards I found: Irrigation = 40%, Thermoelectric = 39%, Public Supply = 13%, Industry = 5%, Livestock, aquaculture = less than 1%, Domestic and Mining = 1%. Those numbers seem to match equally when you look at the picture of the U.S. water map. The most populated states and ones that irrigate and use thermoelectricity have higher percentages then once you start moving up north the water percentages gets smaller.

Water consumption also has to do with each state individually consuming water for specific reasons. For example, more people in California have pools in their backyard. This explains one reason why there is more water consumption in California than the Upper Mississippi. Another example is that Colorado is a desert, so that state needs more water than say Ohio because there is naturally less water there.