Components of water use – water withdrawals, deliveries, releases, return flow, and reclaimed water

Recreation C1
Reservoir instream use Evaporation C1
C1 Reservoir
Evaporation Reservoir water transfer for downstream withdrawals Industrial Sewage
use pretreatment
Thermoelectric
plant FOO
D
W2
C1 Instream
Hydroelectric Cooling flow Evaporation Factory Food
power generation tower C1 Industrial factory
instream use use FOOD
D

C2 W2 s tics C3
● SO
Pla
Evapotranspiration S1 AP ●

Irrigation RF1
Plastics
Commercial S1
W2
C3 delivery C1
Public ● SOAP ●
Evaporation
supply D
Pool
Industrial
delivery S1
RF2 C1 Evaporation School
Commercial
Domestic delivery
W1
L
FE IQUI
RT D
IL I Aquaculture C3
ZE Well
R
instream use W2
RF2
Domestic delivery
School Ecological
instream use
S2 RF2 RF3 Wastewater treatment RF3
Wastewater RF1 RW
W2 RF1
S1 Pump house C1
S1 Golf
RF2 Groundwater Septic tank
Lagoon well Commercial course
and leachfield
Mining
Livestock C3
Self-supplied facilities withdraw water from a surface-water or W2 Sprinkler
W2 groundwater source and use the water for a specific purpose Navigation C1, C2, RF2
(domestic, irrigation, livestock, aquaculture, industrial, instream use
Domestic
RF2 commercial, mining, and thermoelectric power). Public-supply
Wastewater facilities withdraw water from a surface-water or groundwater Recreation
EXPLANATION
source, process the water through a water-treatment plant instream use
Groundwater
W2 (occasionally, public suppliers will not treat water for purposes Direction of water flow
well
S1 like industrial- processing water), and deliver the water to
Septic tank users (domestic, commercial, industrial, and thermoelectric). W1 Groundwater or surface-water
and leachfield During use, some water may be incorporated into products, withdrawals by a public supply
Sprinkler evaporated, evapotranspired, or consumed (collectively W2 Groundwater or surface-water withdrawals RF1 Return flow to surface water
C1, C2, RF2 referred to as “consumptive use”). The remaining water is by a self-supplied water user RF2 Return flow to groundwater
released into a septic system or a wastewater-collection RF3 Return flow from a wastewater-treatment plant
system. After wastewater treatment, the water is returned to a D Delivery of water from public-supply system RW Delivery of reclaimed wastewater for use
surface-water or groundwater resource or released to a
reclaimed water-use facility. S1 Release of wastewater into wastewater-collection C1 Consumptive use from evaporation
system after use (sewer) C2 Consumptive use from evapotranspiration
By Kimberly H. Shaffer and Rosemary S. Stenback S2 Movement of wastewater to a point of use C3 Consumptive use from product incorporation