You are now in California and the U.S. category.

Until 1980, water use went up steadily as population increased, necessitating investments in infrastructure and boosts to capacity. But since then, there has been a dramatic decoupling across the United States, with water use declining even as the population and the economy continued to grow. The U.S. Geological Survey found that water consumption peaked at 440 billion gallons (1,665 billion liters) per day before dropping in 1980 and then remained steady through the 1980s and 1990s. It rose slightly in 2000, but significantly declined between 2005 and 2010, when it fell to 350 billion gallons (1,325 billion liters) per day.

It’s been fairly rainy the past few weeks, but the month of October was probably the wettest month the Reno-Tahoe region will experience for the rest of the year. That’s according to Climatologist Dan McEvoy at the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno. Although October is known to be the first water month of the year in the West, it isn’t going to fully mend the drought. However, the rain put many positive impacts on the area, McEvoy said. “The soil is moistening in high elevation before snowfall hits,” he said.

The Colorado river basin is undergoing one of the worst droughts ever recorded, producing those apocalyptic images of Lake Mead and Lake Powell with their gigantic “bathtub ring” shorelines caused by shrinking water supply. All the states that depend on the river – Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming – have had to scramble to conserve and add new water supplies as a result. And there’s no clear end in sight.

While last Monday morning’s announcement that GE was exiting the water business had been long-rumored, it took many people in the water industry (including your correspondent) by surprise. In October 2008, in the same issue of WDR that Heiner Markhoff was introduced as GE Water’s new president, we reported that, “Industry rumors have already been circulating about which businesses might be sold off,” and, “GE’s Zenon UF product line has been singled out as being most likely to be first on the block.”