Facts

Water is the Key Ingredient for Life in Texas

Those old wranglers you love? A ton of water went into making them.

Water Footprint Calculator

Texas ranks first in the nation for total number of farms. They make up almost 74% of the state’s 268,581 square miles!

Texas agriculture contributed nearly $25 billion to the economy in products sold in 2017.

Did you know it takes about 660 gallons of water to make 1 hamburger?

Water Calculator

Houston Water maintains over 7,000 miles of drinking water pipeline!

Houston Facts 2020

Houston is built on bayous! Its rail lines converge at Buffalo Bayou, which converts into the Houston Ship Channel, and then flows into Galveston Bay.

Living with Water Houston

The Gulf Coast is one of the wettest parts of the US, and Houston gets intense rainfall! Its flat landscape creates wide floodplains and slow bayous.

Living with Water Houston

Texas has over 1.26 million acres of freshwater in lakes, ponds and reservoirs… second only to Alaska in total volume of freshwater.

Texas Aquatic Science

The eastern part of Texas is among the wettest places in America. The western part of the state is among the driest and is part of the Chihuahuan Desert.

Texas Aquatic Science

It takes 3,000 to 6,000 gallons of water each year to power one 60-watt light bulb for 12 hours each day for a year.

Texas Aquatic Science

Austin’s two treatment plants can receive up to 150 million gallons of sewage per day, which is then treated and eventually returned to the Colorado River.

Forty species of fish, hundreds of birds, and thousands of insects rely on the Rio Gande river to survive in Texas’s desert climate.

National Park Service

Chicken and goat are the least water intensive meats to consume.

Pacific Institute

It takes about 528 gallons of water to serve up your daily diet.

75% of the human brain - and also a living tree - is water. Talk about being one with nature.

Environmental Protection Agency

That pint of beer your swigging took about 150 gallons of water to fill. Bottoms up.

It takes about 70 gallons of water to fill a bathtub.

The Water Calculator

Hot dam! Texas has a total of 7,300 dams. That's more than any other state.

StateImpact Texas

It takes around 225 gallons of water to make 1 pound of tortillas.

Chapagain and Hoekstra

On average, it takes 110 gallons of water to produce a single pound of corn.

That favorite pair of blue jeans you're sporting? It took about 2,000 gallons of water to make 'em. That includes the water for cotton and manufacturing.

Stephen Leahey, "Your Water Footprint"

Texas has approximately 191,000 miles of streams, 15 major river basins, 8 coastal basins, and 196 major reservoirs.

Texas Aquatic Science

There are almost 3 million data centers in the US. They use a ton of water! Collectively, they consumed 165 billion gallons of water in 2014!

Water Footprint Calculator

Texas bubbles with about 3,000 springs, including some of the largest in America.

Texas Aquatic Science

Irrigation accounts for 74% of Texas’ groundwater consumption.