Estimating Water Use in the United States A New Paradigm for the National Water-Use Information Program (2002) / Chapter Skim
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2. The National Water-Use Information Program: Past and Present
2. The National Water-Use Information Program: Past and Present
Pages 16-35
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From page 16... ...
Many consumers, including local and regional water management agencies, policymakers, scientists, teachers, and students, employ data on water use. The data are needed for water management planning because the national water supply is finite, and there is growing competition for this limited resource.
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From page 17... ...
These USGS reports contained compilations and estimates of water use for various use categories for each state and water resources region. These data were further subdivided by surface water and groundwater use.
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From page 18... ...
Figure 2.2 shows the trends in fresh groundwater and surface water withdrawals and in population for 1950-1995. The NWUIP formally began in 1978.
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From page 19... ...
Commercial use, wastewater treatment, reservoir evaporation, and hydroelectric power are no longer being tracked, nor are
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From page 20... ...
Data for unshaded boxes are not required for 2000 summary. Note loss of estimates for consumptive use and return flows.
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From page 21... ...
Jurisdictions with complex water management and accounting concerns, such as aquifer storage and recovery, artificial recharge, water reuse, desalination, total maximum daily load (TMDL) issues, and/or interbasin transfers will not find the present categories sufficient for their needs.
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From page 22... ...
has strong regulatory interests in water use because it is the primary federal agency regulating drinking water and wastewater discharges. The EPA interest in water use is driven by risk management through wellhead protection and source-water protection programs and the Safe Drinking Water Act and by how water use information is used in risk assessments for exposure to toxic chemicals and waterborne pathogens.
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From page 23... ...
The NHD combines USGS national map information with river network information from the EPA. Surface water features are combined to form "river reaches," which provide the framework for linking water-related data to the NHD surface water drainage network.
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From page 24... ...
The water use program would have strong management and data links to USGS programs in groundwater resources, stream gaging, and water quality, but it would also maximize collaboration and coordination with other agencies that collect and store agricultural, industrial, demographic, and land use data, especially at the county level. CHALLENGES FACED BY THE CURRENT PROGRAM The USGS has achieved considerable success with the NWUIP and its predecessors over the past 50 years.
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From page 25... ...
Interstate water transfers are common, and the legal and regulatory framework may be dependent upon accurate data from all of the states involved. National issues such as predicting and mitigating the effects of global climate change require baseline data over broad regions.
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From page 26... ...
The nature of the water use data gathering process is very different from that of a stream gage or groundwater well equipped with telemetry. Unlike gages and wells that can transmit virtually realtime information, the collection of water use data may involve a survey, which may then be compiled and analyzed, transmitted to the USGS district office, aggregated in various ways, transmitted to the regional water use specialist or headquarters, compiled nationally, and finally published in the five-year national summary.
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From page 27... ...
As a result, many facilities, for their own purposes, already collect data digitally and then as a separate step aggregate it for mandatory reporting. Paucity of metadata.
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From page 28... ...
those who need and collect data for their own purposes, such as billing, budgeting, allocation, resource management, lobbying, and accounting (this group includes the agencies listed in Table 2.1) , I Municipalities 1 1Power plants | Public whet suppliers Hydropower plops Na031 Resource Conse - ation Se~ee ~ Schools I In.
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From page 29... ...
STATE WATER USE DATA COLLECTION PROGRAMS The NWUIP would not be able to function as it is presently constituted if it were not for water use data collected by the individual state governments for their own purposes. This raises the question, "What kinds of data are collected and stored by each state, and how often?
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From page 30... ...
States may collect water use data for water management purposes even if they do not have the legal authority to permit water use. Public water supply is regulated by the EPA through state agencies using more consistent procedures than apply to other categories of water use.
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From page 31... ...
, there is a significant distinction between water use data collection programs for surface water and those for groundwater. Data on surface water use are collected more universally than data on groundwater use.
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From page 32... ...
The results of this state water use data collection survey are illuminating, and they document in which states comprehensive site-specific water use data collection programs exist. However, the survey also revealed that each state has a particular water use environment, pattern of state laws governing water use, and history of water use data collection and interpretation by the USGS and state agencies.
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From page 33... ...
The state water use data collection programs are classified into the following three categories: Category 1: The state has the legal authority to register or permit water withdrawals throughout the state for all water users from surface water or groundwater sources whose withdrawal rate exceeds a trigger level of 100,000 gallons per day. The state requires the collection of water use data, maintains a database of monthly water use updated annually for each withdrawal above its trigger level, and records water withdrawal locations using latitude and longitude coordinates.
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From page 34... ...
Thus, the Arkansas water use data collection program described in Chapter 3 is not an isolated outlier in terms of state water use data collection programs. The 22 states with data collection programs in either Category 1 or 2 have systematic programs of water use data collection in which both the usage amount and the coordinates of the location of usage are recorded in a database for all significant water use categories.
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From page 35... ...
Water use may be studied using many methods, including some methods (e.g., econometric and materials flow) in which the USGS Water Resources Division has limited experience.
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