Peter Gleick, water analyst extraordinare. and leader of The Pacific Institute, reveals that water consumption in the US of A has actually declined slightly in recent years, according to the USGS.

This is a big deal, as he says, for this reason:

Water planners are trained to assume that as population and economies

grow, water use must inevitably grow. This assumption is why we hear

the drumbeat of calls for new supply, new supply, new supply. We argue

that this is false — it is possible to improve the efficiency of water

use, as our studies repeatedly show, and such improvements eliminate the need for expensive and environmentally damaging new supply.

Gleick adds:

If each American today still used 1,940 gallons per day (as we did in

1975), population growth would have caused the U.S. to use an

additional 165 billion gallons per day. That's equal to more than 12

new Colorado Rivers — or enough water for everyone in California, New

York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, and Michigan. We could never have

supplied that much more water without destroying our remaining rivers,

lakes, aquifers, and aquatic ecosystems. Conservation and efficiency

improvements have saved our butts.

Sometimes I wonder if enviros and agencies need to learn how to trumpet their successes.