Factsheets

Sources of Water

• Surface sources account for 74% of all water withdrawals.⁴
• Approximately 87% of the U.S. population relied on public water supply in 2015; the remainder relied on water from domestic wells.⁴
• Approximately 145,393 publicly owned water systems provide piped water for human consumption in 2025, of which 34% are community water systems (CWS).⁵ Of all CWSs, 9% provide water to 84% of the population.⁵
• In 2006, CWSs delivered an average of 96,000 gal/yr to each residential connection and 797,000 gal/yr to non-residential connections.⁶
• Nearly all rural populations rely on groundwater for drinking water.⁷ Over 84B gal of groundwater is withdrawn in the U.S. every day, nearly 70% is for irrigation.⁴

Energy Use

• 2% of U.S. electricity use goes towards pumping and treating water and wastewater, a 52% increase since 1996.⁸ Electricity accounts for around 80% of municipal water processing and distribution costs.⁹
• Groundwater supply from public sources requires 2,100 kWh/M gal, about 31% more electricity than surface water supply, mainly due to greater water pumping requirements.⁸
• The California State Water Project is the state’s largest single energy use: 6-9.5B kWh/yr, partially met by its own hydroelectric generation.¹⁰
• Delivering water from the San Francisco Bay-Delta to Southern CA uses 3-4% of all state electricity.¹¹ 19% of CA’s electricity use is for pumping, treating, collecting, and discharging water and wastewater.⁹

Water Treatment

• The UN 6th Sustainable Development Goal aims to ensure access to clean water for all. Clean water and sound water resource management are essential for a sustainable future.¹²
• The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), enacted in 1974 and amended in 1986, 1996, and 2018, regulates contaminants in public water supplies, provides infrastructure funding, protects drinking water sources, and promotes water system compliance capacity.¹³
• The U.S. EPA monitors drinking water for microorganisms, disinfectants, radionuclides, and organic and inorganic compounds.¹⁴

• 91% of CWSs are designed to disinfect water, 23% to remove or sequester iron, 13% to remove or sequester manganese, and 21% for corrosion control.¹⁴
• Use the Municipal Drinking Water Database to learn more about the drinking water systems of over 2,000 U.S. cities and the communities that they serve.¹⁵

Life Cycle Impacts

Infrastructure Requirements

• The 2023 Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment found that U.S. water systems need $625B of investment by 2041 to maintain clean drinking water supply.¹⁶
• Water systems maintain more than 2M miles of transmission and distribution mains.³⁰ In 2020, the average age of U.S. water pipes was 45 years, up from 25 years in 1970.¹⁸
• From 2004-2017, ≈ 250,000 main breaks occurred annually, disrupting supply and risking contamination of drinking water.¹⁹ Since 2018, water main breaks have decreased 20% annually, largely due to replacement of cast iron and asbestos cement pipes (which have the highest breakage rates).³⁰ Aging infrastructure contributes significantly to water loss; 33.3T gal (worth $187B) is lost annually.³⁰
• There are an estimated 9.2M lead service lines in the U.S.20 In 2021, Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) allocating $15B towards lead service line replacement.¹⁶

Water System Need by 2041, ($) by Project Type¹⁶

Image

Consumptive Use

• Consumptive water use draws water from a source within a basin and returns none or only a portion back.⁴
• Agriculture is responsible for 80-90% of total U.S. consumptive water use.21 Of the 118B gal/d of freshwater withdrawn for irrigation, over half is lost to consumptive use.⁴
• Over the past 50 years, water consumption has tripled.²²

Solutions and Sustainable Alternatives

Supply Side

• Continued federal funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will reduce the infrastructure investment gap and decrease service disruptions to water-reliant businesses, resulting in 46% cost savings and preserving over 200,000 jobs by 2043.³¹
• Periodic rehabilitation, repair, and replacement of distribution infrastructure would improve water quality and avoid leaks.¹⁷ Right-sizing, upgrading to energy efficient equipment, and monitoring and control systems can optimize systems for the communities they serve, while saving energy and water.⁹
• Significant energy efficiency opportunities exist for pumps and motors.²³ Implementing on-site energy and chemical use efficiency measures, including sludge recycling and chemical recovery, reduces environmental impacts and chemical use.
• Effective watershed management is often more efficient than treating contaminated water. NYC invested $1-1.5B in a watershed protection project to improve the water quality in the Catskill watershed rather than constructing a new $6-8B filtration plant.²⁴ Over 25 years, the Watershed Protection Program has improved water quality with strong indications of continued effectiveness.³²
• Less than 4% of U.S. freshwater comes from brackish or saltwater. Desalination technology, such as reverse osmosis membrane filtering, unlocks large resources, but improvements are needed to lower costs, energy use, and environmental impacts.⁸

Demand Side

• Better engineering practices: plumbing fixtures to reduce water consumption (high-efficiency toilets, low-flow showerheads, and faucet aerators); water reuse and recycling (graywater systems and rain barrels); efficient landscape irrigation practices.^27,33
• Better planning and management: pricing and retrofit programs; proper leak detection and metering; residential water audit programs and public education programs.^27,33
• Communities experiencing environmental injustice can use environmental justice toolkits, such as the Water Justice Toolkit.²⁸