New US database shows who withdraws water ^{CEFR B2}

The United States Water Withdrawals Database, created by Landon Marston and doctoral student Yunus Naseri at Virginia Tech, compiles publicly available records of water withdrawn from rivers, lakes and underground aquifers. Published alongside a study in Nature Scientific Data, the database standardizes records gathered with the cooperation of all 50 state agencies and direct data collection from 42 states; some records extend back more than a century.

The dataset contains large quantities of standardized entries: counts of unique water users, points of diversion and use, tens of millions of withdrawal volumes and millions of individual records. It focuses on self‑supplied withdrawals—water drawn directly from a source by power plants, mines, public systems and others—and includes groundwater and surface water with monthly and annual data where available. It does not record deliveries to individual households or businesses.

Coverage is uneven: the database is not a full census of every drop, and only about a quarter of reported withdrawals are directly measured with meters; most are estimates or mixed methods, and each record documents how the data were obtained. The resource follows FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) and aims to help communities and policymakers track seasonal changes, compare sectors and plan conservation and sustainable management.

• Agricultural irrigation represents about half of recorded entries.
• The power sector withdraws the largest total volume each year.
• Records and reporting rules vary by state.