Electric power plants are the second largest user of freshwater in the United States next to agriculture. Each day the electric power industry withdraws 190 billion gallons of water, 39 percent of all the freshwater withdrawals in the Nation.

Nearly three-fourths of the water used in the power industry goes to fossil fuel-based power plants. However, only a small portion is lost (evaporates).

Every kilowatt-hour of electric power generated from coal requires up to 27 gallons of water to produce.

Or put another way, even the most water-efficient 500-megawatt power plant (a "closed loop" plant) requires about 7,000 gallons of water each minute, equivalent to the content of 17 Olympic-sized swimming pools each day.

As a growing economy drives the need for more electricity, increased pressure on available water will arise. The demand for water by the electric utility sector will increasingly compete with demands from other sectors of the economy. As such, the availability of adequate supplies of water to produce electricity and the impact of power plant operations on water quality are receiving increased attention.

DOE's Technology R&D Focus

In response to the growing recognition of the interdependence between freshwater availability and quality and electricity production, the Innovations for Existing Plants program was broadened in 2003 to include research directed at coal-fired power plant related water management issues. The overall goal of this effort is to reduce the amount of freshwater needed for power plant operations and to minimize potential impacts on water quality. The research encompasses assessments, analyses, and laboratory through pilot-scale testing and is performed in partnership with industry, academia, technology developers, and other government organizations.  The program is built around four specific areas of research:

• Non-Traditional Sources of Process and Cooling Water
• Innovative Water Reuse and Recovery
• Advanced Cooling Technology
• Advanced Water Treatment and Detection Technology

Watershed Science and Technology

The Department's Fossil Energy program is also working on ways to assess the health of watersheds, especially in understanding the impact and transport of pollutants in a region's rivers, streams and lakes. The National Energy Technology Laboratory, for example, has collected extensive data on several important watersheds in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and California. By combining water-quality and geographic data into a geographical information system - a GIS system - the laboratory is able to identify pollutant discharges into a watershed within an accuracy of plus or minus 5 feet. This can significantly reduce the amount of time to locate and subsequently treat pollution sources.

The Department's National Energy Technology Laboratory is also applying a variety of geophysical techniques to locate and map underground mine pools and to pinpoint fractures that might impact surface waters. The Laboratory has also developed new processes for treating contaminated mine water.