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Q: Large manufacturing plants in the US based on volume of water consumed? ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   0 Comments )
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Subject: Large manufacturing plants in the US based on volume of water consumed?
Category: Miscellaneous
Asked by: wetland2-ga
List Price: $125.00
Posted: 02 Mar 2006 09:18 PST
Expires: 01 Apr 2006 09:18 PST
Question ID: 702909
Who are the top 50 of the largest manufacturing faciities, by
location, based on the volume of water they take in for their
operations?  These generally will be reflected in the NPDES permits
they have to have for wastewater or cooling water discharge.  They can
be found by going to every state permitting organization, perhaps, but
I would like a consolidated list of the names and locations of the 50
largest in the US.  Thanks

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 02 Mar 2006 10:52 PST
wetland2-ga,

I'm pretty familiar with industrial and environmental sources of data,
but I haven't found anything that specifically gives a facility's
water use.  Nor is there anything that easily allows sorting for the
largest NPDES dischargers.


However, the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) databases DOES allow
sorting for the largest dischargers to water of toxic chemicals.  This
strikes me as a pretty good proxy for large-facility water use.


The Top Ten facilities on the list are below...let me know if I should
post the remaining 40 facilities as an answer to your question.

Cheers,

pafalafa-ga


===============

Top TRI dischargers to surface water


1  AK STEEL CORP ROCKPORT WORKS	6500 N US 231	ROCKPORT 	IN 
2  BASF CORP	602 COPPER RD			FREEPORT	TX 
3  TYSON FRESH MEATS INC WWTP	1674 C AVE	DAKOTA CITY	NE 
4  TYSON FRESH MEATS INC	1500 S PLUM CK  LEXINGTON	NE 
5  SMITHFIELD PACKING CO INC 	HWY 87 2 MILES  TAR HEEL	NC 
6  EXCEL CORP	HWY 30 W			SCHUYLER	NE 
7  USS GARY WORKS	ONE N BROADWAY		GARY	        IN 
8  TYSON FRESH MEATS INC	2101 W 6TH	EMPORIA	        KS 
9  AK STEEL CORP COSHOCTON WORKS	        COSHOCTON	OH 
10  DSM CHEMICALS NORTH AMERICA INC	        AUGUSTA	        GA 



I look forward to hearing from you on this.


paf

Clarification of Question by wetland2-ga on 02 Mar 2006 19:52 PST
Thanks but the TRI probably will not provide what I am looking for. 
My focus is actually on plants that use large amounts of water for
cooling or other purposes, and they may not necessarily have high TRI
numbers.  Thanks again

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 02 Mar 2006 20:13 PST
Thanks for getting back to me.

I think you're quite right...the TRI numbers would be a rough proxy,
at best.  The large water dischargers are certainly large water users,
but the reverse isn't necessarily true...large water users may have
small TRI discharges.


Unfortunately, I just don't think there's a national system that
captures water use in any easy-to-manipulate way.  The only thing that
crosses my mind is to search TRI for companies with large discharges
of chromium in water, since chromium is still sometimes used as an
anti-corrosive in cooling towers.

But even that would be far from perfect.  If anything else crosses my
mind, I'll let you know.


paf

Clarification of Question by wetland2-ga on 04 Mar 2006 13:20 PST
Thanks.  Hope you come up with an idea.

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 04 Mar 2006 13:43 PST
One last thing to double-check.

Your original question asked about manufacturing plants, so I assumed
you were not interested in power-generating plants, which are -- far
and away -- the largest industrial users of water in the US.  They
pretty much dwarf everything else, and even use more than farmers!

So...just want to check and make sure that power plants aren't on your list.

Thanks,

paf

Clarification of Question by wetland2-ga on 06 Mar 2006 08:24 PST
That's right.  I actually have a list of the power plant users.

thanks again!

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 06 Mar 2006 09:38 PST
For a while there, I thought that the USGS national water use
inventory might have the data you need, but I just confirmed with the
database manager there that it's no go...they only have aggregated
data.

What they do provide, however, for the year 2000, is total industrial
(non-power-plants) water use in each county.

For instance, Lake County, Indiana, has the largest industrial water
use in the country (1.34 billion gal/day), followed by Brazoria
County, TX ( 656 million gal/day).

That's as close as I've gotten.  I still have one open query out to
EPA, so I'll let you know if anything else turns up (though I don't
think it will, at this point).


paf

Clarification of Question by wetland2-ga on 06 Mar 2006 15:05 PST
Thanks...if your inquiry from the EPA does not yield anything, it
could be that the USGS data base you could obtain (espcially if I can
get it for all counties in US) might suffice.  It is probable with
that I can do a little county specific research for the specific big
water users.

Thanks again.

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 07 Mar 2006 09:21 PST
<<sigh>>  I was right...nothing available at EPA, as far as I can tell.


Let me know your thoughts on how (or whether!) to proceed at this point.


paf

Clarification of Question by wetland2-ga on 07 Mar 2006 09:45 PST
I would be willing to accept the download of the data source you have
located from USGS that "provide...for the year 2000...total industrial
(non-power-plants) water use in each county."

Rather than downloading the file, if you want to provide the links for
this data source that would be fine.  Or if you want to list only
those counties that have over 50 mgd or industrial water demand that
also will work.

thanks
Answer  
Subject: Re: Large manufacturing plants in the US based on volume of water consumed?
Answered By: pafalafa-ga on 07 Mar 2006 10:49 PST
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
wetland2-ga,


Thanks for getting back to me on this.  I'm glad I was able to come up
with some useful information for you.


The list of the counties with industrial water use greater than 50 mgd
is below...there are 77 all together.


The source of the list is the USGS Water Use database for 2000 (which,
by the way, is being updated with 2005 data, though the USGS didn't
know when the new data would be publicly available).


The entire dataset is here:


http://water.usgs.gov/watuse/data/2000/index.html
Estimated Use of Water in the United States County-Level Data for 2000



The database download link for the entire US is at the bottom of the
page, and can be downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet.


The database does not include county names, but rather uses Census
Bureau FIPS codes.  A full list of such codes are here:


http://www.census.gov/geo/www/fips/fips65/data/national.txt
FIPS 6-4 Information 




Using the database and the FIPS 'translator', I was able to generate
the list of counties with the largest industrial water use.  I
included population data as well, in case that's of any use to you.

Here 'tis:



County Name	County Population	Industrial Water Use-mgd

Lake, IN..................484.56...............1348.25
Brazoria, TX..............241.77...............656.29
St. Charles, LA............48.07...............584.35
Iberville, LA..............33.32...............577.01
Sullivan, TN..............153.05...............496.70
Warrick, IN................52.38...............469.86
Porter, IN................146.80...............427.22
Allegheny, PA............1281.67...............338.99
Wayne, MI................2061.16...............308.64
St. Bernard, LA............67.23...............271.17
Calcasieu, LA.............183.58...............271.13
Beaver, PA................181.41...............249.75
Liberty, TX................70.15...............247.42
Washington, OH.............63.25...............234.03
St. James, LA..............21.22...............232.39
Orange, TX.................84.97...............229.43
Morris, TX.................13.05...............222.77
Baltimore, MD.............754.29...............222.23
Ascension, LA..............76.63...............207.03
Harris, TX...............3400.58...............174.25
Cowlitz, WA................92.95...............151.76
Hancock, WV................32.67...............146.94
Wood, WV...................87.99...............143.06
Jefferson, OH..............73.89...............141.51
Kanawha, WV...............200.07...............137.54
Hopewell, VA...............22.35...............132.50
Clark, WA.................345.24...............129.87
Morgan, AL................111.06...............127.44
Clinton, IA................50.15...............124.87
Wood, WI...................75.56...............118.77
Delaware, PA..............550.86...............115.72
Early, GA..................12.35...............108.66
Peoria, IL................183.43...............107.13
Jefferson, TX.............252.05...............96.18
Etowah, AL................103.46...............95.70
Plaquemines, LA............26.76...............95.19
Cook, IL.................5376.74...............94.94
Cuyahoga, OH.............1393.98...............92.53
Calhoun, SC................15.18...............90.20
York, SC..................164.61...............86.50
St John the Bap, LA........43.04...............86.39
Colbert, AL................54.98...............85.60
Martin, NC.................25.59...............82.52
E Baton Rouge, LA.........412.85...............81.86
Kent, SC..................142.55...............81.71
Westmoreland, PA..........369.99...............80.07
Galveston, TX.............250.16...............75.58
Talladega, AL..............80.32...............75.11
Benton, WA................142.48...............75.08
Richmond, GA..............199.78...............73.98
Jefferson, KY.............693.60...............73.75
Pueblo, CO................141.47...............73.19
Humphreys, TN..............17.93...............71.59
Chatham, GA...............232.05...............70.36
Brown, WI.................226.78...............70.01
Glynn, GA..................67.57...............68.99
McMinn, TN.................49.02...............64.90
Trumbull, OH..............225.12...............64.86
Bowie, TX..................89.31...............64.36
Alleghany, VA..............12.93...............62.73
Marshall, WV...............35.52...............61.63
Giles, VA..................16.66...............61.13
Penobscot, ME.............144.92...............60.69
Wayne, GA..................26.56...............59.52
Monroe, AL.................24.32...............59.39
Harrison, TX...............62.11...............58.29
Snohomish, WA.............606.02...............58.22
Los Angeles, CA..........9519.34...............57.73
Escambia, FL..............294.41...............56.94
Lawrence, AL...............34.80...............55.80
Coffee, TN.................48.01...............55.04
Cabell, WV.................96.78...............54.20
Monongalia, WV.............81.87...............53.85
York, VA...................56.30...............53.26
Koochiching, MN............14.36...............51.53
Jasper, TX.................35.60...............50.04
Choctaw, AL................15.92...............50.00




I trust this information fully answers your question.

However, please don't rate this answer until you have everything you
need.  If there's anything more I can do for you, just post a Request
for Clarification, and I'm happy to assist you further.

pafalafa-ga


search strategy -- Searched EPA and USGS web sites, and Google, for [
industrial water use ]
wetland2-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars
Great response and appreciate the dialogue to help focus the need with
what was available.

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