Water woes: The impact of power plants on fresh water supplies

The research is in, and it doesn't look good:

Every day in 2008, on average, water-cooled thermoelectric power plants in the United States withdrew 60 billion to 170 billion gallons of fresh water from rivers, lakes, streams and aquifers, and consumed 2.8 billion to 5.7 billion gallons of that water.

Hat tip to the Charlotte Observer for covering this report. Please take the time to read it.