Drinking water systems and power plants use the most Great Lakes water but irrigation practices and livestock farms lose the most, according to a new government report.
The U.S. Geological Survey report, based on 2000 data, estimated consumptive uses of water pumped from all lakes, rivers and groundwater aquifers within the Great Lakes basin. Consumptive uses are those that cause Great Lakes water to leave the basin, usually in the form of evaporation.
On a volume basis, public water supplies, power plants, irrigation and livestock consume the most water. Irrigation and livestock farms lose the largest percentage of water those operations use, the report said.
“We found that irrigation and livestock had the largest losses compared with total water withdrawn from the Great Lakes basin,” said Kimberly Shaffer, a USGS hydrologist who wrote the report. “Of the total water withdrawn for irrigation, 70-100 percent was lost to the basin.”
Livestock farms used 235 million gallons of Great Lakes water per day in 2000 and lost about 80 percent, 200 million gallons, to evaporation and other factors, the report said.
Scott Piggott, manager of argicultural ecology for the Michigan Farm Bureau called the USGS data “erroneous.” He said farmers whose crops and livestock consume all the water a farm pumps out of the Great Lakes basin are efficient — not wasteful, as the USGS report implied.
“If this consumptive use is a measure of efficiency, a farm that consumes 95 percent of the water it uses is efficient,” Piggott said. “If the definition of consumptive use is water lost from the Great Lakes basin, I find fault with the definition.”
The water use and consumption figures seem large but are a relative drop in the bucket compared to the amount of water that naturally evaporates from the lakes. Each day, 116 billion gallons of water evaporates from the Great Lakes, according to John Nevin, a spokesman for the International Joint Commission.

mlive.com

Greg Norman has it too good these days.
Jets off in his private jet to Shanghai with his fiancé, a still gorgeous Chris Evert.
Says he’s going to do a little business over there. His “business” includes golf course design, real estate, a clothing line and wine.
And while he’s in this exotic location, with a beautiful, former tennis queen, he uses his idle time to play in the $2.3 million Asian Open, where he shoots a 1-under 71 in the opening round.
Wears a hat with “Great White Shark,” written in Chinese.
As I write this, I’m sitting at my desk wearing a ratty bathrobe, unshaven, unkempt and still an un-millionaire.
Am I jealous? Is that why I want him to choke?
But, you see at least I admit it. Norman never admitted he was a choker in his serious playing days.
Therefore, I am a better man and deserve Chris Evert more than Norman.
Does anybody have her number?
How about her address? I have some photos she needs to see before she says “I do.”
Allowed XHTML tags: <p, ul, ol, li, dl, dt, dd, address, blockquote, ins, del, span, bdo, br, em, strong, dfn, code, samp, kdb, var, cite, abbr, acronym, q, sub, sup, tt, i, b, big, small>. Bloggers reserve the right to edit or delete comments. Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management.

travelgolf.com