About the data
EIA’s Thermoelectric Cooling Water Data gives annual cooling-water withdrawal and consumption by plant, in million US gallons, for 2014 to 2024. Withdrawal and consumption are different measures and are never added.
The USGS Surface water Supply and Use Index gives water stress for 83,191 HUC12 watersheds over water years 2010 to 2020. The map draws HUC8 watersheds as the mean of their HUC12 values, and each plant is tested against its own HUC12.
A plant is flagged when its watershed is High or Severe and its 2024 withdrawal or consumption is in the top quarter of its fuel group. In 2024, 33 plants are flagged: 19 gas, 11 coal and 3 nuclear.
- Cooling water
- 2014 to 2024; 2024 volumes for 727 plants on the map
- Water stress
- Water years 2010 to 2020, 132 months, for 83,191 HUC12 watersheds
- Units
- Million US gallons
- Updates
- Annual
- Licence
- USGS water stress and watershed data are public domain
Access
Free for everyone, with no account.
Where it appears: Environmental tab, Water layer.
MCP tools that return it: get_plant_water_use. The MCP server is part of Pro; setup is on MCP server.
Sources
- Thermoelectric Cooling Water Data(opens in a new tab), U.S. Energy Information Administration
- Surface water Supply and Use Index (SUI)(opens in a new tab), U.S. Geological Survey, National Water Availability Assessment
- Watershed Boundary Dataset and Principal Aquifers(opens in a new tab), U.S. Geological Survey
Periods and update notes for each source are on Data sources.
Known gaps
- SUI is a modeled surface-water index. It does not describe aquifers and can understate shortage on large regulated rivers.
- The test uses the plant’s location, not its intake. It is not a measure of current drought, permits or water rights.
- Saline, Great Lakes, reclaimed-water and dry-cooled intakes are not tested.
- Cooling-pond plants report circulation as withdrawal. Blank volumes are unreported, not zero.
Missing values stay missing: a null means the source has no usable record, never zero. Zero and negative values are shown as reported.
How InfraMap uses it
How InfraMap joins, groups and calculates with this dataset is on Methodology.
Questions it answers
- Which gas plants in Texas withdraw the most cooling water in high-stress watersheds?
- Which plants are flagged for high water use in a stressed watershed?
- How much cooling water did a given nuclear plant withdraw and consume in 2024?