I need information about the average cost of a 1000 gallons of water
in the USA, including:

1) Municiple Water 
2) Desalination
3) Industrial,
4) Residential
5) City 

I also want to know how much water is used by each category (a
precentage of overall water usage).

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Request for Question Clarification by richard-ga on 22 Mar 2003 04:41 PST

Hello:

You may find that one Researcher can answer the first part of your
question - - the cost part while another can answer the second part --
allocation of usage by categories.

May I suggest that you consider cancelling this question and posting
the two questions separately?

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Request for Question Clarification by lmnop-ga on 22 Mar 2003 06:12 PST

About the second half of the question, the different categories will
overlap. Water "used" doesn't make sense with "desalination" for
example, or even "municipal" which is usually thought of as a
supplier, though I can see flipping that backwards. Anyway, any
specific clarification for what you need will help.

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Request for Question Clarification by omnivorous-ga on 24 Mar 2003 10:19 PST

Andy --

Much of what you're seeking is available, though not quite in the
categories that you've outlined.  That's probably why researchers
haven't answered the question.

Let me outline what's available to see if it meets your needs.  We can
find:
*  average water prices per 1,000 gallons (the fully-allocated
accounting costs)
*  average water treatment costs per 1,000 gallons
*  use by major category: public supply; rural (including irrigation);
industrial; and electricity generation
*  sources by ground and surface water (desalinization is minimal in
the U.S.)

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

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Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 25 Mar 2003 23:39 PST

To demonstrate what Omnivorous explained, I will state that I've found
only the cost per 1000 gallons in Wisconsin, in a PDF document.
Figures for the whole of the USA and in the categories you mentioned
might take a bit of compilation time.

I suspect there is no answer because water is billed in a variety of
ways with sur-charges of considerable variety. In Feb 2003 I was
charged $13.67 for 900 cubic feet of water = 6732 USA gallons. Because
I used that much water I was billed $29.50 for sewer, plus $1.37
service fee. ($44.54 total) My bill did not say if the sevice fee was
for the water or the sewer or perhaps the St Johns water management
agency, or other. I think my water charge is typical for the USA, but
my sewer charge may be double the nationwide average. My water is 1
Municiple 4 Residential 5 City
 I think desalinated water is only about a millionth part of the
gallons sold in the USA.
 Distinguishing between industrial and agricultural may also be
difficult in some comunities. There are thousands of privately owned
water utilities in the USA, some of which sell to industrial users.
Would you consider a golf club Industrial or agricultural? How about a
pet shop that sells live fish for aquariums, or a motel, or old folks
home? I think there are lots of gray areas that some water providers
would list as miscellaneous. Industrial may be lumped with commercial
in some areas or called business water use which is not exactly the
same as commercial water use. Other catagories some places woulg be
government, municipal and/or military.   Neil

A 1997 Dept. of Interior report
http://www.usbr.gov/water/media/pdfs/report024.pdf has a graph on page
9 that shows water rates ranging from $0.50-$6.00/1000 gallons (Ernst
and Young).  Table 1 on page 3 shows a list of de-sal plants at that
time.  The report as a whole deals with cost issues.  (Note:  in
comparing water rates, be sure when they are water only, or
water/sewer, and compare apples to apples.)

Water purveyors do not charge different rates to different types of
users; municipal = residential and city.  Some purveyors give a volume
discount, which industrial users can use.  Call American Water Works
ASsociation at (303) 347-6140 and they'd be glad to help you.