Water Trivia

Did You Know?

Water Week is a national celebration of the good work performed by America's water professionals. Many people take safe, clean water for granted, but thousands of trained men and women are on the job around the clock to safeguard our water resources. Here are a few facts about water.

• The only water we will ever have is what we have right now.
• Showers use 9 gallons of water per minute. A bath requires 30-50 gallons.
• Once groundwater is polluted it may remain that way for several thousand years.
• It can take 120 gallons of water to produce one egg.
• A hot water faucet that leaks 60 drops per minute can waste 192 gallons of water and 48 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month.
• Human blood is 83% water. Human bones are 25% water.
• Running the tap waiting for water to get hot or cold can waste 5 gallons per minute.
• 97% of the water on the earth is saltwater; only 3% is freshwater. Most of the freshwater stored on the earth is frozen glaciers.
• Each day the sun evaporates 1,000,000,000,000 (a trillion) tons of water.
• The earth's surface is approximately 80% water. That's about 362,000,000,000,000 (362 trillion) gallons of water.
• Watermelon is 93% water.
• Water was the first word that Helen Keller learned. "Water" was the last word spoken by President Ulysses S. Grant.
• In some deserts, rain is so uncommon that the natives do not have a word for it.
• Over 42,000 gallons of water are needed to grow and prepare the food for a typical Thanksgiving dinner for eight in the United States. This is enough water to fill a 30 by 50 foot swimming pool!
• The people in the United States use as much as 700,000,000,000 (700 billion) gallons of water each day.
• Heating water is the second largest energy user in the home.
• The koala bear and the desert rat do not drink water.
• In one glass of water, there are about 8,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (8 septillion) water molecules.
• In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about two weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.

Learn More

To learn more about our water supply, please contact the Water Department at (276) 679-1160.