We turn on a faucet to brush our teeth, water our gardens, and make a morning pot of coffee, but what happens to that water once it’s used?

In the Delaware River Watershed, this question isn’t just idle curiosity; it’s central to managing our most vital resource — water. The concept of consumptive water use describes the water withdrawn and does not return to the watershed, whether incorporated into manufactured products, evaporated, or exported outside the basin. Despite a growing population, water usage in the basin shows promising trends. Water consumption by public utilities is declining thanks to efficient practices, and industrial water use is also decreasing. Although nuclear power plants are the most significant water consumers in the Basin, their usage remains stable.

The most significant chunk (69 percent) of consumptive water use is out-of-basin diversions . These withdrawals are transported to provide clean and safe drinking water to New York City and northern New Jersey. Locally and within the watershed, the primary water consumers are power plants, public water suppliers, industrial facilities, and irrigation systems. The consumptive use of water varies significantly between these different sectors. For instance, agricultural irrigation consumes more than 90 percent of the water that’s actually drawn due to evaporation. On the other hand, public water utilities typically consume just 10 percent of the water they draw because most of the water used in homes and cities goes back into the system via sewers.