Each citizen in Oregon City has an active roll in keeping our water supply safe to drink. Just as a "green thumb" takes care of their plants, as citizens we need to become " Blue Thumbs" and take action to conserve & protect our water resources everyday. To help our customers learn about water conservation here are 25 basic facts.

 

•  The first municipal water filtration works opened in Paisley, Scotland, in 1832.

•  Over 79,000 tons of Chlorine is consumed and used per year in the United States & Canada to treat our water.

 

•  97% of all the water that is found on the earth is "salt water" found in the ocean & the seas.  

•  1% of the earth's water is available for drinking. The other 2% is still frozen!  

•  Our human bodies are about 2/3 water, some parts of the body contain more water than others. For example, 70% of your skin is water.  

•  There are more than 56,000 community water systems providing water today, in the United States today.  

•  There is roughly 38 billion gallons of water produced by public water providers per day, in the United States for public use.

 

•  There is approximately 1 million miles of domestic water pipeline & aqueducts to carry water in the United States. That's enough pipe to circle the Earth 40 times!

 

•  Wells drilled in the United States for domestic, farming, commercial and water testing total around 800,000 per year.

 

•  The typical household in the US consumes 50% of their water by irrigating landscape. On the inside toilets use the most water, with an average of 27 gallons per person per day.

 

•  The United States congress passed a safe drinking water act in 1974 to ensure that drinking water is safe for human consumption. The Act requires public water systems to monitor and treat drinking water for safety.

 

•  13 million households get their water from their own private well and are responsible for treating and pumping the water themselves.

 

•  In 1990, 197 million pounds of toxic chemicals were released into waterways.

 

•  On a daily basis the average requirement for fresh drinking water is about 40 billion gallons a day, with 300 billion gallons used which is untreated for agricultural and commercial purposes.

 

•  Human survival requires Water; the human body can only survive 5 to 7 days with out it. Where as the body can survive approximately a month without food.

 

•  The average person uses about 100 gallons of water a day at home.

 

•  Between 15 to 25 gallons of water is used for the typical 5 min shower.

 

•  An 8oz glass can be filled 15,000 times for the same cost of a six-pack of pop.

 

•  Hand washing dishes can use up to 20 gallons of water to wash dishes. An Automatic Dish washer uses approximately 9 to 12 gallons.

 

•  If every home in America had a water faucet that dripped once a second, 928 million gallons of water per day would be wasted.

 

•  A dairy cow must drink 4 gallons of water a day to produce one gallon of milk for human consumption.

 

•  1 gallon of water weighs approximately 8.5 pounds.

 

•  One inch of rainfall drops 7000 gallons or nearly 30 tons of water on a 60' x 108' piece of land.

•  300 million gallons of water are needed to produce a single days supply of U.S newsprint.  

•  A person should consume 2.25 quarts of water per day (from all sources of water, food ect.) to maintain health.

 

 

 

 

For more information on drinking water and conservation or anti - pollution tips please visit AWWA American Water Works Assoc.