Statistics
Water Issues and Fossil Fuels
Fossil-fueled power plants account for about 39% of the water used in the United States. The typical coal plant requires 25 gallons of water for cooling for each kilowatt-hours produced, three of which must continually be replaced because of evaporation.

Coal Power and Water
For the 46,235 GWh of electricity produced via coal for California in 2006, more than 140 billion gallons of water were required for cooling. That is enough water to fill almost 280 thousand Olympic-sized swimming pools.* California can address climate change and water conservation by choosing clean energy.
*The depth of Olympic-sized swimming pools varies, but this calculation assumes that an Olympic-sized pool holds 500,000 gallons of water.
Sources:
California Energy Commission
National Energy Technology Laboratory
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