Defining water use

So here it is, Saturday, and I'm still packing/cleaning my office. The paint/carpet work will begin in my zone Monday, but I've begged dispensation until Tuesday so I can take 2 conference calls in my office (and with better access to update notes pages on the Web). But the packing needs to be done before Monday morning. I worked at it for most of yesterday, too, despite not being scheduled to work on Fridays.

I'm down to the last little unsorted pile from the desktop, and ran across this on a piece of paper. I was taking notes during a presentation by Ben Dziegielewski on water use, to a panel examining the USGS Water Use Program. We (the USGS) generally define water use as 'man's interaction with the water cycle'. Ben said "water use is an anthropogenic flux that closes the water budget." It's the academic version...