Nonresidential water use in the U.S.
Open-knowledge reference entry
Nonresidential water use is a volumetric measure of the use of publicly-supplied (municipal) water for areas other than residential use. It is typically subcategorized under users including Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional sub-sectors, which are often jointly designated as the ICI or CII sector.
Estimates of total CII use
In the United States, a USGS nationwide compilation of public supply withdrawals and deliveries indicates that in 2010 the total daily volume of nonresidential use was approximately 12,000 million gallons per day (mgd) and accounted for about 29 percent of public supply withdrawals (or 45 gallons per capita per day when divided by the estimated 268 million people who relied on public-supply water). This estimate is obtained by subtracting from total public supply freshwater withdrawals (41,700 mgd) the reported domestic (residential) use (23,800 mgd) and allowing for 14 percent of unaccounted for water (because of leaks, hydrant flushing, tower maintenance, and other system losses, also called non-revenue water). The estimates of average water loss in public supply systems in the U.S. range from 12 to 16 percent. The share of CII use varies across water utilities; in a sample of 31 utilities in Texas it ranged from less than 4 percent of metered use in Lamar County WSD to 79 percent in Borger MWS, with average share of 35 percent. In order to achieve improvements in the efficiency of CII water use, it is necessary to obtain information about the existing conservation potential in different types of establishments and about specific end uses of water in each CII category. Studies of water use in the CII sector were conducted by the American Water Works Association, Pacific Institute, Colorado WaterWise Council, Conserve Florida Water Clearinghouse (CFWC), and The Water Research Foundation (WRF).
CII user categories and subcategories
Nearly a hundred specific end uses within seven major groupings (i.e., washing and sanitation, domestic-type uses, landscape irrigation, outdoor and indoor water features, cooling and heating, food service, and process water) were compiled in the WRF study. Typically, the total CII use in an urban area or a region is broken down by categories of commercial establishments (and types of institutions or industrial plants) based on the kinds of goods and services provided, or their function.
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