Cities With Most Water Loss Due To Sprawl

29 August 2002 - 8:00am

Sprawl is making the nation's drought more painful by impairing the landscape's ability to recharge aquifers. Which cities are the worst?

"Atlanta is the nation's most rapidly sprawling metropolitan area, creating an additional 57 billion to 133 billion gallons of polluted water runoff each year, the report said. Atlanta loses enough water to supply the average household needs of up to 3.6 million people a year, the report said.The Boston area was next with between 44 billion and 103 billion gallons of water lost. Next came Philadelphia with 25 billion to 59 billion gallons of water unable to return to the soil, the report said."

Source: CBS News, August 29, 2002
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Its very unsuitability for an urban center justifies its current usage as a suburban or ex-urban pattern.