Agricultural Agricultural water use can be divided between irrigation and livestock. Estimated annual water use for irrigation remained at about the same level between 1985 and 1990, with approximately 63 percent of the water used for irrigation in 1990 coming from surface water. Approximately 60 percent of the water used for livestock came from ground water sources and the remaining 40 percent from surface water sources. Not only can the loss of water from irrigation conveyance systems be significant, but the percentage of consumptive water use for agriculture is high as well an estimated 54 percent consumption in 1985. This final category includes water used for the production of energy from fossil fuels, nuclear energy, or geothermal energy.
Most water withdrawn for thermoelectric power production is used for condenser and reactor cooling.
While 1990 estimates of freshwater withdrawals remained constant from 1985, nearly half again as much saline water was also used. More than 99 percent of the water used for thermoelectric power production comes from self-supplied surface water, less than 0.2 percent from public supplies. The Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic Gulf, Ohio, and Great Lakes water resource regions use the largest amounts of water for thermoelectric production.