rainfall, the authors estimate, leaving a 16 billion gallon per day "deficit ."
Industry's demand for water is high-manufacturing a single glass bottle requires up to 660 gallons-but it returns most of what it uses. Farm irrigation accounts for 83 percent of the water consumed, most of it lost through seepage or evaporation. Seventeen western states ac- count for 93 percent of the irrigation water used. Because surface water is scarce in these states, they rely heavily on underground...