New Tool Lets You Look Up your Household Water Footprint

Americans use a lot of water every day, more water than they realize due to the fact that water is used in the production of food and household goods. Most measures of household water use focus on direct in-home use such as sinks and showers, but as a new water footprint calculator shows, much of the water used by a household occurs far away.

FAIR noted in a 2012 report that, “Most Americans are fortunate enough to enjoy clean, abundant supplies of fresh water. But, despite tremendous gains in water conservation over the last several decades, we are using water at an unsustainable rate. The reason: Population growth.” This new calculator underscores the point that the consequences of population growth in the U.S. aren’t confined to just the communities that have a high rate of growth, cities and counties across the country can feel the effects of increased demand for water.

And, as everyone knows, immigration is the main source of population growth in the U.S.