Water useage in perspective:

• It is estimated that it may take around 1,750 gallons of water to produce a bushel of
corn. That sounds like a lot, but did you know it takes 684,000 gallons of water per acre
per year to irrigate a golf course? And that, on average, a homeowner uses 21,600
gallons to water his or her lawn each year? Source: Nebraska Corn Board

• In the United States, 96 percent of corn used for ethanol production is not irrigated.
Therefore, the current accepted statistic of 785 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol
when irrigating applies to only 4 percent of total ethanol produced today. The ethanol
industry only produces 260 million gallons of ethanol per year with irrigated corn crops
out of a total of 6.5 billion gallons. Source: National Renewable Energy Laboratory

• According to a recent article by the Associated Press, a typical 40 million gallon per year
ethanol plant uses about 330,000 gallons of water per day. But did you know that an
urban area of roughly 180,000 residents (roughly the size of Overland Park, Kansas)
uses 23 million gallons of water per day and the city of Chicago pumps 500 million
gallons per day from Lake Michigan.

• On average a corn plant needs 30 inches of water per year to produce a maximum yield.
Within the next two years, we will see drought resistant corn that can produce a
maximum yield with only 15 inches of water. That’s a 50 percent reduction in water
needs! Source: Monsanto, Syngenta and Pioneer Seed Company

• According the U.S. Geological Survey, an acre of corn gives off 3,000-4,000 gallons of
water each day through transpiration. As a corn plant grows, it takes in water, but it also
transpires water, releasing it into the atmosphere and starting the hydrologic cycle all
over again. This process is known as water transpiration. Source: U.S. Geological Survey

• On average, the production of one gallon of ethanol requires three gallons of water. It
takes approximately 2.5 gallons of water to produce one gallon of gasoline. However,
with new developments, it is estimated that it will take between 2 -2.5 gallons
of water for each gallon of ethanol. Source: National Renewable Energy Laboratory

• If a person turns on the faucet four times a day for an average of 2 minutes he uses 24 gallons of water per day, 730 gallons per month and 8760 gallons per year. If the average person drives 12,000 miles per year, uses approximately 600 gallons of fuel with an average of 20 miles per gallon, and drives using an E10 blend, only 1590 gallons of water was used to produce the fuel.

• In most cases, a third of the water used in ethanol production is reused within the
production process. The remaining water is evaporated in the atmosphere or discharged
into drainage pumps where it is filtered and held in a drainage pond for reuse.

© 2008 Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, Inc. All Rights Reserved.