WATER 135 



to a great extent on whether or not such a method of boot 

 keeping should be accepted. 



INTERSTATE CONTROL OF WATER 



Although in the end water problems in various parts of the 

 country are very like, they are often made up of individual 

 difficulties of a wide variety. The East, for example, is a region 

 of large cities. Large cities need vast amounts of water for both 

 domestic and industrial uses. New York City uses 142 gallons 

 of water for each inhabitant daily. This does not mean that 142 

 gallons is consumed by each New Yorker to drink, wash his 

 dishes, and bathe. The figure of 142 gallons is a result of dividing 

 the total amount of water consumed by the total number of 

 inhabitants. Therefore, the 142 gallons includes the water used 

 by industry and by the city for such purposes as flushing the 

 streets and putting out fires. 27 Buffalo uses 324 gallons per day 

 per citizen. Chicago uses 270 gallons per citizen per day. These 

 figures are not very different from ancient Rome's 300 gallons 

 per citizen per day, but with greater populations today, the 

 total amount of water used daily by a city like New York has 

 reached the huge total of 1,157 million gallons. 28 Even in the 

 humid East that is a severe drain on water resources. 



WATER FOR DRINKING 



At one time there was a great gulf between the problems of 

 city water supply in the East and in the West. With the eastern 

 cities consuming more and more water, the gulf has shrunk to 

 one major difference. This difference is the distance the larger 

 western cities must go for their water. And as the eastern cities 

 must reach out farther and farther for their water, even that 

 difference is disappearing. 



Water for Los Angeles comes chiefly from the Owens Val 

 ley, 238 miles from the city, and now Boulder Dam, 270 miles 



27 Parkins and Whitaker, op. cit., p. 295. 



28 Ibid., p. 301. 



