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Minnesotans used 1.4 trillion gallons of water in 2007. The electrical power industry used 839 billion gallons, mostly for pass-through cooling. Public waterworks used 227 billion gallons. Industries – led by mines and paper producers — used 167 billion gallons. Farmers and other users pumped 167 billion gallons for irrigation. None of the totals includes many small – less than 10,000 gallons a day or 1 million gallons a year — private wells that are not required to report their water usage to the state. — Source: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

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The Freshwater Society gave away fact sheets on water sustainability, demonstrated the way groundwater travels within aquifers and answered scores of questions from visitors to a Freshwater table at a two-day special celebration of water hosted by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.

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Did you know some grasses require a half- inch or less of water each week and on average only need to be mowed once a year? Would you like to learn how to plant a green roof to prevent water pollution? Did you know that the U.S. is the largest consumer of water in the world per capita because of the goods that we import?

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Do you linger in the shower? Do you let the water run while you shave or brush your teeth?

Do you prefer a T-bone to tofu?

How do you commute to work? By bike or by car?

Do you have a green lawn that requires regular sprinkling, or native plants that get along on whatever rain falls on them?

Lifestyle choices – some of them big conscious decisions, some of them preferences and habits that are part of our culture and the environment in which we live – determine how much water we all consume.

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