Money for water and the watts aren't free

Add conventional utilities to the list of those wasting water.  Western states drag themselves through the dust of an extend drought, burning from forests of the northwest to farmland of Texas, yet the coal plant wants more water.  Water rights fights rage from North Dakota to Mexico.  Kansas is suing Colorado again, a suit 40 years old, and now add Nebraska, as those states suck the rivers dry before they cross the border.

Generating electricity requires rivers of water.  Either from a river or river fed lake, or from massive wells into finite deposits.   Nuclear plants lead the list of water use per kilowatt delivered.  Next coal fired plants in all forms, burned as rock, or dust, mixed with natural gas, under high pressure or conventional.  Natural Gas fired generators are essentially equal in water consumption to most coal operations.   I lost the data, but the amount used is amazing at all these generating stations, a small river is needed every day all day.

These generators work when water is turned into steam.  Then it's cooled and either returned to the loop or let go, either way it has to be first cooled, evaporation towers like above or the cone shaped ones at nuke plants. But prior to water being added to the boiler it may need filtered and treated, this process also uses or eliminates lakes of water.  

But wait, there are some forms of generating which do not require any water.  Wind and solar PV.  None.   That seems like a hugh plus for western states and drought conditions.  Now those solar mirror systems that heat molten salt need water once, but it is a closed loop so none is consumed, those solar mirror systems that boil water to run a turbine will need water, so far as I know none of those are in the US or planned.

Hydroelectric dams.  Well they use lots of water, but in theory the water would have passed by just the same so it is a wash, that's a joke, get it, a wash, ha!