1) in a restrictive sense, the term refers to water that is actually used for a specific purpose, such as for domestic use, irrigation, or industrial processing. In this report, the quantity of water use for a specific category is the combination of self-supplied withdrawals and public-supply deliveries. 2) More broadly, water use pertains to human's interaction with and influence on the hydrologic cycle, and includes elements such as water withdrawal, delivery, consumptive use, wastewater release, reclaimed wastewater, return flow, and instream use. See also offstream use and instream use.

(1) In a restrictive sense, the term refers to water that is withdrawn for a specific purpose, such as for public supply, domestic use, irrigation, thermoelectric-power cooling, or industrial processing. In previous water-use Circulars, water use for the domestic, commercial, industrial, and thermoelectric-power categories included both self-supplied withdrawals and deliveries from public supply. (2) More broadly, water use pertains to the interaction of humans with and influence on the hydrologic cycle, and includes elements such as water withdrawal, delivery, consumptive use, wastewater release, reclaimed wastewater, return flow, and instream use. See also offstream use and instream use.

whenever water is used by an activity or organism, either in the place it is found or by withdrawing it

The amount of water either withdrawn from groundwater or surface water sources or utilized instream to meet water demand.

Any utilization of water which reduces the supply from which it is withdrawn or diverted.

water that is used for a specific purpose, such as for domestic use, irrigation, or industrial processing. Water use pertains to human's interaction with and influence on the hydrologic cycle, and includes elements, such as water withdrawal from surface- and ground-water sources, water delivery to homes and businesses, consumptive use of water, water released from wastewater-treatment plants, water returned to the environment, and instream uses, such as using water to produce hydroelectric power.