- Employment
- Services
- Software Documentation
- Quality and ISO
- Data Analysis and Reporting
- Research
- Achievements
- Recommendations
- Water
- Water Data
- She Has A Story For Everything
Data and Calculations
Total Use per Day
California uses 38 billion gallons of water a day. While this number was established in 2010, agricultural use has been expanding since 2010 logically canceling out residential reductions. Note 1
Residential Use
As of 2013, California had 12,542,460 households with 2.94 people per household. Note 2
Using my Northern California household (four adults and a small front and back yard) my annual use is 90,000 gallons or 61.65 gallons per person per day including yard watering. Therefore I calculate an average household of 2.94 will use 181.3 gallons a day. A 2011 state study noted the average California household used 360 gallons a day. The average of this range is 270 (181.3 + 360/2) gallons a day.
Renters and condo owners don’t have yards or swimming pools but many complexes do so I considered them comparable to the average household use.
Using 270 gallons a day, California’s 12.5 million households use 3,387,000,000 (rounded) gallons of water a day. Dividing this by 38 billion gallons of water a day indicates 8.9% percent of TOTAL DAILY water is used by 100% of the population. Using the higher figure of 360 gallons per day, the percentage is 11.9%, significantly less than the 20% expressed by Governor Brown.
Since swimming pools are not refilled every day, I decided that the slight impact they would have on drought issues was not worth the calculations.
Agriculture
Almond growers, represented by about 6,000 growers, use 10% or 3.8 billion gallons of water a day. This is for a crop where 90% is sent out of state, contributes less than 2% to California’s GDP and represents .6% of jobs. While we read or hear almond growers saying they have no water and are letting their trees die, neither a 2014 report nor the Blue Diamond annual meeting report show any reduction whatsoever in production. In fact these publications indicated 2013 and 2014 were banner years and 2015 was expected to be the same. Note 3
Pistachio and walnut growers combined also use about 10% of the water, again to export most of the crops and contribute even less to the state GDP. Not only did the growers plant these trees knowing they were water hogs, they continued to plant them as the drought worsened. According to Reuters, the 2014 walnut crop was expected to be 11 percent BIGGER than 2013. Note 4
Alfalfa growers use about 15% of the water or 5.7 billion gallons a day. Of that, 30% or 1.7 billion gallons of water is exported overseas. I am not and will not be a vegetarian but I do take notice that I am restricting my water use and paying ever increasing rates so someone in Japan can eat beef. Note 5
Golf Courses
The 1,140 golf courses use 1% of the fresh water daily or the equivalent of the annual needs for 3,856 households (98,550 per family x 365). In one year, golf courses alone use the water for 1.4 million households. Owners state that they can use gray water but it will take years to install the equipment. Many courses report they have been reducing water use for the past six years but we have no details. How fast would it take if they had all their water cut off? Note 6
Fracking
Fracking used 70 million gallons in 2014 or 191,780 gallons a day. While small when compared to almonds, walnuts and golf courses, this does not include the ruined aquifers, wells, wetlands, streams and water sheds. Where fracking is concerned we need regulations on the quality of the water not the quantity. Note 7
Water Bottling
California has 108 licensed bottled water plants. Nestle owns five or six of those plants and bottles 705 million gallons of California water a year. While the state has no statistics on total water used, I saw a comment in one of the water articles that stated 5,000 acre feet (1,633,500,000 gallons). No idea where it came from but it sounds logical. Therefore one year of bottled water distributed to 365 days is equal to .005 of 1% of California’s daily use. On the other hand, in some areas the water is being pumped from fragile habitats causing a lack of water to those habitats. The water is sold in plastic containers that use water and oil for their production and litter our roads, fields, rivers and beaches. Note 8
Water Parks
Major water parks use 1 to 1.5 million gallons to fill a park. Monthly replenishment is 2.2 to 3%. This is assuming the parks are NOT drained in the winter, something I am trying to determine. With approximately 12 major water parks, we would attain monthly savings of 360,000 to 540,000 gallons if the parks were closed. Balanced against the economic benefits to the tourism industry and the jobs provided by the parks, I did not include closing them in my analysis. Note 9
Footnotes
1 http://ca.water.usgs.gov/water_use/2010-california-water-use.html;
http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2014/08/21/usgs-estimates-vast-amounts-water-used-
california/14400333/
2 http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.html
http://ca.water.usgs.gov/water_use/2010-california-water-use.html
3 http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/05/_10_percent_of_california_s_water_goes_to_
almond_farming.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/30/how-growers-gamed-california-s-drought.html
http://aic.ucdavis.edu/almonds/Economic%20Impacts%20of%20California%20Almond%20Industry_Full%20Report_FinalPDF_v2.pdf
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/4/2/after_warmest_winter_drought_stricken_california
http://www.almonds.com/sites/default/files/content/Technical%20%20Information%20Kit.pdf
4 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/08/usa-walnuts-drought-idUSL1N0R91EY20140908
http://www.americanpistachios.org/about-apg/suppliers-processors
5 http://www.publiclandsranching.org/htmlres/wr_guzzling_water.htm
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/05/_10_percent_of_california_s_water_goes_to_almond_farming.html
6 http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25794740/californias-golf-courses-gird-long-dry-summer
http://www.golflink.com/golf-courses/state.aspx?state=CA
https://vacationpalmsprings.com/palm-springs-golf-courses.php
7 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/02/fracking-california-water_n_6997324.html? fb_action_ids=1092921750721696&fb_action_types=og.shares
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Waste-Water-from-Oil-Fracking-Injected-into-Clean-Aquifers-282733051.html
http://rt.com/usa/194620-california-aquifers-fracking-contamination/
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/02/02/3618295/california-allows-oil-companies-to-pollute-drinking-water-sources/
8 http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/04/11/california-drought-bottled-water/25635023/
http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2015/03/05/bottling-water-california-drought/24389417/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/10/bottled-water-drought-california_n_7028058.html
9 http://ishc.com/wp-content/uploads/Water_Conservation_Waterparks.pdf
http://www.ultimatewaterpark.com/waterparks/find/california/
http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/article/Schlitterbahn-explains-how-it-keeps-3-5-million-5412692.php
California uses 38 billion gallons of water a day. While this number was established in 2010, agricultural use has been expanding since 2010 logically canceling out residential reductions. Note 1
Residential Use
As of 2013, California had 12,542,460 households with 2.94 people per household. Note 2
Using my Northern California household (four adults and a small front and back yard) my annual use is 90,000 gallons or 61.65 gallons per person per day including yard watering. Therefore I calculate an average household of 2.94 will use 181.3 gallons a day. A 2011 state study noted the average California household used 360 gallons a day. The average of this range is 270 (181.3 + 360/2) gallons a day.
Renters and condo owners don’t have yards or swimming pools but many complexes do so I considered them comparable to the average household use.
Using 270 gallons a day, California’s 12.5 million households use 3,387,000,000 (rounded) gallons of water a day. Dividing this by 38 billion gallons of water a day indicates 8.9% percent of TOTAL DAILY water is used by 100% of the population. Using the higher figure of 360 gallons per day, the percentage is 11.9%, significantly less than the 20% expressed by Governor Brown.
Since swimming pools are not refilled every day, I decided that the slight impact they would have on drought issues was not worth the calculations.
Agriculture
Almond growers, represented by about 6,000 growers, use 10% or 3.8 billion gallons of water a day. This is for a crop where 90% is sent out of state, contributes less than 2% to California’s GDP and represents .6% of jobs. While we read or hear almond growers saying they have no water and are letting their trees die, neither a 2014 report nor the Blue Diamond annual meeting report show any reduction whatsoever in production. In fact these publications indicated 2013 and 2014 were banner years and 2015 was expected to be the same. Note 3
Pistachio and walnut growers combined also use about 10% of the water, again to export most of the crops and contribute even less to the state GDP. Not only did the growers plant these trees knowing they were water hogs, they continued to plant them as the drought worsened. According to Reuters, the 2014 walnut crop was expected to be 11 percent BIGGER than 2013. Note 4
Alfalfa growers use about 15% of the water or 5.7 billion gallons a day. Of that, 30% or 1.7 billion gallons of water is exported overseas. I am not and will not be a vegetarian but I do take notice that I am restricting my water use and paying ever increasing rates so someone in Japan can eat beef. Note 5
Golf Courses
The 1,140 golf courses use 1% of the fresh water daily or the equivalent of the annual needs for 3,856 households (98,550 per family x 365). In one year, golf courses alone use the water for 1.4 million households. Owners state that they can use gray water but it will take years to install the equipment. Many courses report they have been reducing water use for the past six years but we have no details. How fast would it take if they had all their water cut off? Note 6
Fracking
Fracking used 70 million gallons in 2014 or 191,780 gallons a day. While small when compared to almonds, walnuts and golf courses, this does not include the ruined aquifers, wells, wetlands, streams and water sheds. Where fracking is concerned we need regulations on the quality of the water not the quantity. Note 7
Water Bottling
California has 108 licensed bottled water plants. Nestle owns five or six of those plants and bottles 705 million gallons of California water a year. While the state has no statistics on total water used, I saw a comment in one of the water articles that stated 5,000 acre feet (1,633,500,000 gallons). No idea where it came from but it sounds logical. Therefore one year of bottled water distributed to 365 days is equal to .005 of 1% of California’s daily use. On the other hand, in some areas the water is being pumped from fragile habitats causing a lack of water to those habitats. The water is sold in plastic containers that use water and oil for their production and litter our roads, fields, rivers and beaches. Note 8
Water Parks
Major water parks use 1 to 1.5 million gallons to fill a park. Monthly replenishment is 2.2 to 3%. This is assuming the parks are NOT drained in the winter, something I am trying to determine. With approximately 12 major water parks, we would attain monthly savings of 360,000 to 540,000 gallons if the parks were closed. Balanced against the economic benefits to the tourism industry and the jobs provided by the parks, I did not include closing them in my analysis. Note 9
Footnotes
1 http://ca.water.usgs.gov/water_use/2010-california-water-use.html;
http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2014/08/21/usgs-estimates-vast-amounts-water-used-
california/14400333/
2 http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.html
http://ca.water.usgs.gov/water_use/2010-california-water-use.html
3 http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/05/_10_percent_of_california_s_water_goes_to_
almond_farming.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/30/how-growers-gamed-california-s-drought.html
http://aic.ucdavis.edu/almonds/Economic%20Impacts%20of%20California%20Almond%20Industry_Full%20Report_FinalPDF_v2.pdf
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/4/2/after_warmest_winter_drought_stricken_california
http://www.almonds.com/sites/default/files/content/Technical%20%20Information%20Kit.pdf
4 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/08/usa-walnuts-drought-idUSL1N0R91EY20140908
http://www.americanpistachios.org/about-apg/suppliers-processors
5 http://www.publiclandsranching.org/htmlres/wr_guzzling_water.htm
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/05/_10_percent_of_california_s_water_goes_to_almond_farming.html
6 http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25794740/californias-golf-courses-gird-long-dry-summer
http://www.golflink.com/golf-courses/state.aspx?state=CA
https://vacationpalmsprings.com/palm-springs-golf-courses.php
7 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/02/fracking-california-water_n_6997324.html? fb_action_ids=1092921750721696&fb_action_types=og.shares
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Waste-Water-from-Oil-Fracking-Injected-into-Clean-Aquifers-282733051.html
http://rt.com/usa/194620-california-aquifers-fracking-contamination/
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/02/02/3618295/california-allows-oil-companies-to-pollute-drinking-water-sources/
8 http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/04/11/california-drought-bottled-water/25635023/
http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2015/03/05/bottling-water-california-drought/24389417/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/10/bottled-water-drought-california_n_7028058.html
9 http://ishc.com/wp-content/uploads/Water_Conservation_Waterparks.pdf
http://www.ultimatewaterpark.com/waterparks/find/california/
http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/article/Schlitterbahn-explains-how-it-keeps-3-5-million-5412692.php
