Water Use and Conservation in Manufacturing: Evidence from U.S. Microdata

Randy Becker

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2016, vol. 30, issue 12, No 9, 4185-4200

Abstract: Abstract Water can be a scarce resource, particularly in certain places at certain times. Understanding both water use and conservation efforts can help ensure that limited supplies can meet the demands of a growing population and economy. This paper examines water use and recirculation in the U.S. manufacturing sector, using newly recovered microdata from the Survey of Water Use in Manufacturing, merged with establishment-level data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures and the Census of Manufactures. Results suggest that water use per unit of output is largest for larger establishments, in part because larger establishments use water for more purposes. Larger establishments are also found to recirculate water more — satisfying demand (water use) without necessarily increasing water intake. Various costs also appear to play a role in water recirculation. In particular, the water circulation rate is found to be higher when water is purchased from a utility. Relatively low (internal) prices for self-supplied water could suppress the incentive to invest in recirculation. Meanwhile, establishments with higher per-gallon intake treatment costs also recirculate more, as might be expected. The cost associated with water discharge – due to regulation or otherwise – also increases circulation rates. The aridity of a locale is found to have little effect on circulation rates.

Keywords: Water use; Water recirculation; U.S. manufacturing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-016-1414-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
Working Paper: Water Use and Conservation in Manufacturing: Evidence from U.S. Microdata (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:30:y:2016:i:12:d:10.1007_s11269-016-1414-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-016-1414-7

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().