Soil and Water Conservation

Johnston County, North Carolina

Water Facts

  • Water is the most common substance found on Earth
  • The only water we will ever have is what we have now.
  • In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about two weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.
  • Each day the sun evaporates 1,000,000,000,000 (a trillion) tons of water.
  • Water is the only substance on earth found in the three true element forms: solid, liquid, and gas.
  • 80% of the earth's surface is water.
  • 97% of the earth's water is in the oceans and seas.
  • 66% of your body is water.
  • Bones are 25% water.
  • Human blood is 83% water.
  • A person can survive without food for more than 30 days, but less than a week without water.
  • A gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds.
  • For every 2.31 feet that water is raised above the earth's surface there is 1 pound per square inch of pressure.
  • For every 2.31 feet you are submerged below a water's surface, there is 1 pound per square inch of pressure equally placed on your body.
  • The first water pipes made in the U.S. were fire charred, bored out of logs.
  • There are over 1 million miles of water pipelines and aqueducts in the United States and Canada - enough to circle the globe 40 times.
  • There are over 59,000 community public water systems in the U.S.
  • Community water systems process over 35 billion gallons of water daily.
  • The average household uses 107,000 gallons of water per year.
  • It takes 1,851 gallons of water to refine 1 barrel of crude oil.
  • It takes 120 gallons of water to produce one egg.
  • Over 42,000 gallons of water, (enough to fill a 30 x 50 foot swimming pool) are needed to grow and prepare the food for a typical Thanksgiving dinner for eight.
  • A single birch tree will give off 70 gallons of water per day in evaporation.
  • An acre of corn will give off 4,000 gallons of water per day in evaporation.