EarthComm Earth's Natural Resources: Water Resources and Your Community Activity 3

PDF versionPDF version

Earth's Natural Resources book image



Types of Water Use

  • Water Source - EPA
    This site reviews the distribution of water on Earth and how water is used in the United States, including agricultural, industrial, and household usage.
  • "Water on Tap: A Consumer's Guide to the Nation's Drinking Water" - EPA
    This online booklet provides information on a variety of topics related to drinking water, including the quality of drinking water in the U.S., where water comes from, how much drinking water is used in the typical home, the future of water resources in the U.S., and steps that can be taken to protect the nation's drinking water.
  • WaterSense - EPA Office of Water
    This site reviews water use in the United States, including overall national trends and use by category (municipal/public supply, domestic and commercial, industrial and mining, agricultural, and thermoelectric power)

Back to Top


Part B: Water Use in Your Community, to complete the investigation, each student group will need:

  • Water use data for county and a nearby county
    • EPA Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water
      Click on your state to be taken to a new page that gives an overview of your state's drinking water and links to additional information. To view your water quality report, click on the "water quality report" link to view a list of reports that are available online.
    • USGS Water Use Data
      Print out the data directory first, as it explains the cods used for each data category. Next, locate your state and click on the County Data File link. This will load water use data in tab delimited "spreadsheet" format. These files can be directly imported into spreadsheet computer programs, such as Excel. To do this, follow the directions below:
      1. With the data for your state in the browser window, select file, scroll down to save as, and save the document as text (i.e., "mystate.txt")
      2. Launch Excel and open up a blank workbook.
      3. In the file menu, select open. Find your file and open it. This will pull up a window call a "text import wizard". Follow the options for delimited text (the delimiters are tabs). When you are finished with the wizard, your local water use data will be in an Excel spreadsheet.
      4. Save the file as an Excel file. You can then print copies for students, transfer it to disk for use on computers in your classroom, or load it onto a school computer system.

Back to Top


To learn more about water use in the home, visit the following web sites:

Back to Top