| OCR Text |
Show Present estimates place irrigation use at about 15 billion gallons a day for something like 5 million acres, raising the 1950 total ground water use to at least 25 billion gallons a day. Estimates for use of surface water are shock- ingly vague. Public water systems probably used about 9 billion gallons a day in 1945. Current use is unquestionably larger. Rural use, exclud- ing irrigation, may be about 1 billion a day. Irri- gation probably takes some 80 billions a day. Estimates of water required for cooling purposes in steam power generation range all the way from 10 billion to 50 billion gallons a day of non- consumptive use. A serious problem of over- heating of stream water is occuring. Estimates for other industrial uses range from 30 billion to 100 billion gallons a day, the major portion of which is nonconsumptive. No figures are avail- able to determine how much water used for in- dustrial purposes is returned for further use downstream, or the added stream or ground water pollution therefrom. Ground water use is estimated to have ap- proximately doubled from 1935 to 1945. Present use of 25 billions is estimated to represent from one-fifth to one-eighth of the country's total water requirements. Total present requirements are estimated at from 125 to 200 billion gallons a day, which includes much nonconsumptive use. The maximum gross used is equivalent to more than 200 million acre-feet a year or about one- sixth of the total runoff of the rivers of the United States. While use is increasing and there are areas of deficient water supply for present and future needs, the overall situation reveals an ade- quate available supply for the Nation's needs. Beyond all doubt, it is urgently up to us to learn quickly and reliably how much water we are using and what our future needs are likely to be. In doing this we must constantly consider the availability and the cost of both surface water and ground water, and the relation between them in each area and basin. The Commission recognizes that present water law, in general, involves some principles incom- patible with ground water hydrology and with the fundamentals of basin-wide, optimum yield management. It faces the fact that in various localities the growing demand may soon force water users to achieve equitable allocations through sound mutual action within the frame- work of hydrologically sound statutes. The Commission therefore offers the following recom- mendations, with the knowledge that the cooper- ation of the States will be required, to underscore the immediate necessity for coordinating develop- ment of the water resources of the Nation. Such coodinated development will open the way to realizing the great possibilities of joint operation of surface and underground reservoirs with asso- ciated surface streams to provide plenty of good water when and where needed for all beneficial purposes. RECOMMENDATIONS Accordingly, the Commission recommends that: 1. The best possible use of ground water re- sources should be included as an integral part of comprehensive river-basin programs, with clear recognition of the interrelationship between ground and surface waters and with due regard for the rights and interests of the States. 2. A continuing survey program designed to supply the country with full quantitative and qualitative geological and hydrological knowl- edge of its available surface and ground water resources, including all their characteristics of temperature, chemical content, and sediment, should be initiated immediately with ample funds to assure its early completion of essential informa- tion, and the continued gathering of data to meet all requirements of plans for and development of basin programs. 3. All public and private agencies utilizing surface or ground water for domestic and indus- trial water supply, irrigation, power, navigation, flood control, or any other purpose, or discharg- ing sewage or other wastes into surface or ground water, should be required by law to report their operations on a uniform basis to be established by the United States Geological Survey, which shall correlate and publish such data in relation to its 121 |
