Practiced extensively in the West, irrigation brings cotton to Arizona, potatoes to Idaho, tomatoes to California. It takes less water to forge steel, make paper, manufacturer paint, and produce plastic than it used to. Across the US, people are using less water as they take showers, flush toilets, and water lawns. The US uses more water to produce electricity than for any other purpose. Electricity heats and cools buildings, drives trains, melts metals.
Water helps generate power through two different processes, thermoelectric and hydroelectric.
Thermoelectric plants, which convert water into steam by heating it with fossil or nuclear fuels, provide nearly 90 percent of US electric power. Water from dammed resevoirs provides the gravity-driven force that turns turbines to energize dynamos. Though it is seen mainly in the West, a growing number of southeastern farmers are turning to irrigation to increase yields and fight drought. Large governmental subsidies have encouraged irrigated farming since the early 1900's. More recently, water shortages, decreased subsidies, and rising costs of pumping water have pushed farmers to adopt more efficient irrigation practices - thus curbing western water use.