Water Withdrawals in the U.S.

The USGS estimated that about 322 billion gallons of water were withdrawn from U.S. sources per day in 2015; roughly 133 billion gallons (41%) went to thermoelectric power. This is withdrawal, not the amount fully consumed and lost: thermoelectric consumptive use was much smaller, about 4.31 billion gallons per day. Thus, the original 400 billion figure and “nearly half” do not match this official estimate; values depend on year and method. [1–3]