Water Conservation at EPA

Pie chart showing typical end uses of water in an office building, including 37 percent for sanitary use, 28 percent for cooling and heating, 22 percent for irrigation, and 13 percent for the kitchen/dishwashing. — View a larger version of this image.

The U.S. population has doubled over the past 50 years, while our thirst for water has tripled. With at least 40 states anticipating water shortages by 2024, the need to conserve water is critical. EPA strives to integrate water management best practices at all of its facilities.

EPA occupies two main types of facilities: offices and laboratories. Plumbing, heating/cooling and irrigation needs comprise a large percentage of typical office water use. The Agency has minimized those uses by installing high-efficiency plumbing fixtures and eliminating irrigation.

Pie chart showing end uses of water in a laboratory, including 37 percent for cooling tower make-up, 27.5 percent for laboratory process and miscellaneous laboratory water use, 13 percent for sanitary use, 8 percent for single-pass cooling, 6.5 percent for boiler feed, 4 percent for irrigation, 3 percent for miscellaneous HVAC/mechanical room, 1 percent for reverse osmosis, and less than 1 percent for steam sterilizers. — View a larger version of this image..

Laboratories use water for laboratory processes, water purification and steam sterilization. Laboratories also have significant heat loads, so a significant amount of water is used as cooling tower make-up. EPA has focused much of its water-saving efforts on laboratory facilities.

In 2002, EPA began reducing its water footprint, prior to any federal requirements mandating water conservation. EPA’s water management planning and water use reduction efforts have produced significant results.

EPA water reduction strategies include:

Monitoring water meters and tracking use
Installing WaterSense labeled and other high efficiency restroom fixtures
Eliminating single-pass cooling
Optimizing cooling tower efficiency
Minimizing or eliminating landscape irrigation.

Graph showing that EPA reduced its water use from the fiscal year 2007 baseline of 35.7 gallons of water per gross square foot to 20.2 gallons of water per gross square foot in fiscal year 2021. — View a larger version of this image.

EPA Water Conservation Results

EPA reduced its water intensity by 43.5 percent in FY 2021 compared to FY 2007. EPA continues to manage water to maintain progress and implements water projects to reduce water consumption further.

Learn more about water management plans and best practices at EPA, and how the Agency minimizes landscaping water use.