PUB00011

• Year: 1990
• Title: Estimated Use of Water in Colorado 1990
• CWCB Section: Water Conservation & Drought Planning
• Author: Wayne B. Solley, Robert R. Pierce & Howard A. Perlman
• Description: Water-Resources Investigations Report 88-4101
• Publications - Doc Type: Brochure

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26 I OFFSTREAM USE

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pomestic water use includes
for normal household pur-
water d 'nk' f d
such as n 109, 00
poses, h' h'
aration, bat 109, was 109
prep . h fi run
thes and dlS es, us g
cIo . I d
'1 ts and watenng awns an
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dens. State agencies genera y
garb 'n reliable information from
ouu b 'hd
ublic supplier~ a out Wit raw-
~ and populatIOn served, Infor-
s 'on on deliveries to various
mati 'ffi 1 b'
S was more dl cu t to 0 tam
user .
d generally was eSllmated from
an . d
the populatIOn serve .
The number of people
ed by their own water
se~ems (self supplied) was deter-
sy~ ed by subtracting the number
rom bI' l'
of people served by pu IC supp 1-
from the total populallon as
~ f
rled by the V,S. Bureau 0
repo .
th Census. The difference
b ~ween these totals indicated
he t 42.8 million people, or 17
taN" I
ent of the allon s tota pop-
pelrt~IOn were served by their own
u a ' . 0
ter-supply systems 10 199 ,
waropared with 42.5 million peo-
c~e in 1985. Self-supplied
~ roestic systems rarely are me-
o d and few data exist. Self-
tere .' hd I
Plied domestic Wit rawa s
sup d' .
were estimate usmg per-capita
Coefficients that general1y
use

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SOURCE

ranged from 50 to 120 gallons per
person per day, Consumptive use
estimates were based on coeffi-
cients, generally ranging from 10
to 50 percent of withdrawals and
deliveries.
Domestic water use (with-
drawals, deliveries) during 1990
was an es1imated 25,300 Mgal/d
(tables 11, 12), or 4 percent more
than during 1985, Domestic use
represents 7 percent of total
freshwater use for al1 offstream
categories. Domestic withdraw-
als were an estimated 3,390
Mgal/d. Ground water was the
source for about 96 percent of
domestic withdrawals; surface
water was the source for the
remaining 4 percent. More than
50 percent of the Nation's popu-
lation is dependent on ground
water for domestic use. With-
drawals for the population served
by their own wa1er systems aver-
aged about 79 gal/d for each
person, compared to 78 gal/d
during 1985. Public suppliers
delivered about 21,900 Mgal/d of
water to domestic users; this
accounted for 57 percent of total
public-supply withdrawals. Pub-
lic-supply domestic deliveries
averaged 105 gal/d for each

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person served, the same as
during 1985. The per-capita use
has remained about the same for
the last decade as the result of
active conservation programs in
many stales that include the
instal1ation of additional meters
and water-conserving plumbing
fixtures.
The source and disposition
of water for domes1ic purposes
are shown in the chart below. The
consumptive use of water for
domestic purposes during 1990
was 5,880 Mgal/d, or about 23
percent of withdrawals and
deliveries.
In 1990, the South Atlantic-
Gulf water-resources region had
the largest self-supplied with-
drawals for domestic purposes
(figure 10), whereas the Califor-
nia region accounted for the
largest total of domestic with-
drawals and deliveries (table 11).
Self-supplied domestic with-
drawals were fairly evenly
distributed among the States (fig-
ure II). California, Texas, New
York, Florida, and Illinois
accounted for 44 percent of
domestic water use because of
large public-supply deliveries.
(See figure 12; table 12.)

DISPOSITION

__ Consumptive use
23

25,300 MILLION GALLONS PER DAY
DOMESTIC SOURCE AND DISPOSITION, 1990, IN PERCENT

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