25 FACTS ABOUT WATER

Water Tips and Facts

Water needs our help. We have the same amount of water today as we did when the Earth was formed. Constant use and pollution threatens our water resources. Experts estimate that nonpoint pollution, that is, agricultural and urban runoff combined with pollution by individuals, threatens our water resources more than industrial pollution.
 

To help you learn more about water, here are 25 basic facts:

1. The first municipal water filtration works opened in Paisley, Scotland, in 1832
2. Of all the earth’s water, 97% is salt water found in oceans and seas.
3. Only 3% of the earth’s water is fresh water. Two percent is currently frozen.
4. About two thirds of the human body is water. Some parts of the body contain more water than others. For example, 70% of your skin is water.
5. There are more than 56,000 community water systems providing water to the public in the United States.
6. Public water suppliers process 43 billion gallons of water per day for domestic and public use.
7. Approximately 1 million miles of pipelines and aqueducts carry water in the United States and Canada. That’s enough to circle the earth 40 times.
8. About 800,000 water wells are drilled each year in the United States for domestic, farming, commercial, and water-testing purposes.
9. Typically, households consume at least 50% of their water by lawn sprinkling; inside toilets use the most water, with an average of 27 gallons per person per day.
10. In 1974, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act to ensure that drinking water is safe for human consumption. The Act requires public water systems to monitor and treat drinking water for safety.
11. The average person spends less than 1% of his/her total personal income for water, wastewater, and water disposal services
12. More than 13 million households get their water from their own private wells and are responsible for treating and pumping the water themselves.
13. More than 79,000 tons of chlorine is used per year in the United States and Canada to treat water.
14. The average daily requirements for fresh water in the United States is about 40 billion gallons a day, with about 300 billion gallons used untreated for agricultural and commercial purposes.
15. You can survive about a month without food but only 5 to 7 days without water.
16. On average, each American uses about 160 gallons of water a day.
17. The average five-minute shower takes between 15 to 25 gallons of water.
18. You can refill an 8-oz glass of water approximately 15,000 times for the same cost as a six-pack of soda.
19. An automatic dishwasher uses approximately 9 to 12 gallons of water while hand washing dishes can use up to 20 gallons.
20. If every household in America had a faucet that dripped once each second, 928 million gallons of water a day would leak away.
21. A dairy cow must drink 4 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of milk
22. One gallon of water weighs approximately 8.34 pounds
23. One inch of rainfall drops 7,000 gallons, or nearly 30 tons of water, on a 60’ x 180’ piece of land.
24. 300 million gallons of water are needed to produce a single day’s supply of U.S. newsprint.
25. We can protect our water sources by properly disposing of household chemicals, preventing them from contaminating our water sources.