How Energy Drains Water Supplies – NY Times

There is more cost involved in energy production than the damage to the ecology of aquatic habitats, according to a recent New York Times article.  All along the  energy production chain water is consumed and removed from the water cycle, using around 35.1 billion cubic meters (that is 9.25 trillion gallons or about 8 cubic miles) of fresh water each year, about 4% of the available fresh water in the US.

Power plants aren’t the only part of the energy generation process that consume large amounts of water, with fuel extractors and manufacturers being major consumers as well, with both fracking and tar sand extraction processes being named as large consumers.

You can read more about the effects of energy generation on our water supply here.

References:

http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=cal/waterfootprintcalculator_national

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=4%25+of+2842+m^3%2Fyr+per+capita+times+the+population+of+the+US