Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2015

Kids page exaggeration

I read the Kentucky Kids page (December 2019). I pass along some of the information to my grandchildren, but the “Did You Know?” statement was extremely exaggerated. Enough media is using false data to brainwash our children and try to make us feel guilty about ‘wasting’ resources without Kentucky Living adding to it. Water conservation is important, but to say that every person uses 80 to 100 gallons a day is pure fiction.

Growing up in the country and carrying buckets of water 400 feet up a hill from the springhouse taught us to be conservative. We still wash dishes by hand and celebrated (getting) county water!

Glen Logsdon, Bardstown 

Salt River Electric consumer-member

Editor’s Note: The sentence you reference reads, “Every person in the United States uses an average of 80–100 gallons of water per day.”

Per capita domestic water use varies widely across states, with western states using three times more than us. Kentucky ranks 17th lowest in usage, at 68 gallons per day, per person on average.

Read the entire U.S. Geological Survey report, Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2015.