The trivia items below were gathered from various public-domain sources and
may not all reflect the most current statistics.
- Water is the only substance found on earth naturally in three forms.
True -- solid, liquid, and gas
- Does water regulate the earth's temperature?
Yes, it is an insulator.
- How long can a person live without water?
Approximately one week, depending upon conditions
(a person can live more than a month without food)
- How much water must a person consume per day to maintain health?
Two and a half quarts from all sources, i.e. water, food, etc.
- How many miles of pipeline and aqueducts are in the U.S. and Canada?
Approximately one million miles or enough to circle earth 40 times
- What were the first water pipes made from in the U.S.?
Fire charred bored logs
- How many households use private wells for their water supply?
17,000,000 households
- How much water is used to flush a toilet?
1.6 - 7 gallons
- How much water is used in the average 5-minute shower?
12.5 - 50 gallons
- How many community public water supply systems are there in the U.S.?
58,900
- How much water do these utilites process daily?
34 billion gallons
- How much water does the average residence use during one year?
107,000 gallons (National)
- How much does an individual use daily?
123 gallons (National)
- What does a person pay for water on a daily basis?
National average is 25 cents
- How much of the earth's surface is water?
80%
- Of all the earth's water, how much is oceans or seas?
97%
- How much of the earth's water is frozen and therefore unusable?
2%
- How much of the earth's water is suitable for drinking?
1%
- Is it possible to drink water that was part of the dinosaur era?
Yes
- If all community water systems had to be replaced, what would be the cost?
In excess of $175 billion
- What does it cost to operate the water systems throughout the country
annually?
Over $3.5 billion
- Americans use 5,506,540 gallons of water each day for showers.
- Leaks cab be costly. Aleak of only one drop per second wastes about 10,000
liters of water per year.
- More than 50% of water applied to lawns is lost to evaporation or run-off
due to overwatering.
- The average automatic dishwasher uses 68 liters of water per wash cycle.
- One gram of PCBs can make up to one billion liters of water unsuitable
for freshwater aquatic life.
- One drop of oil can render up to 25 liters of water unfit for drinking.
- In developing nations, 80% of diseases are water related.
- There may be as many as 6 million diatoms, tiny floating plants, in a
cubic foot of sea water.
- The world's oceans contain 328 million cubic miles of sea water.
- Three-fourths of household water is used to flush the toilet and take
baths and showers.
- Hydrophobia - Fear of water or of rabies.
- 39,090 gallons are used to manufacture a new car, including tires.
- 2,072 gallons of water is used to make four new tires.
- A brich tree gives off 70 gallons of water per day in evaporation.
- A cornfield of one acre gives off 4,000 gallons of water per day in evaporation.
- Two gallons of water are used to brush your teeth.
- An automatic dishwasher uses 9 - 12 gallons of water to wash dishes, on
the average.
- Twenty gallons of water, on the average, is used to hand wash dishes.
- One gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds.
- It would take 219 million gallons of water to cover one square mile with
one foot of water.
- There are 7.48 gallons of water in one cubic foot.
- When it rains one inch, you get 27,000 gallons of water per acre.
- 66% of the human body is water.
- It takes approximately one gallon to process a quarter pound hamburger.
- It takes 2,072 gallons to make four new tires.
- It takes 1,500 gallons of water to process one barrel of beer.
- It takes 9.3 gallons of water to process one can of fruit or vegetables.
- It takes 101 gallons of water to make one pound of wool or cotton.
- It takes 1,851 gallons of water to refine one barrel of crude oil.
- It takes 62,600 gallons of water to produce one ton of steel.
- It takes 28,100 gallons of water to process one ton of cane sugar to make
processed sugar.
- Using recycled water (treated to almost drinkable standards) on landscaping
would save the U.S. enough fresh water in a year for everyone in New York
City to take a 10-minute shower every day for 4 1/2 years.
The above information was reproduced by permission
of
State Major Program Florida 411: Water Conservation,
a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences initiative.