61.9 million: Number of Americans who visited a beach in 1999.

85: Percentage of U.S. tourism accounted for by coastal states.

30 million: Number of Americans who went fishing in 2006.

$42 billion: Amount spent on recreational fishing-related expenditures in 2006.

89.1 million: Number of Americans who went boating for recreation in 2009.

$30.8 billion: Amount spent in sales of goods and services reported by the recreational boating industry in 2008.

18,940: Number of boating businesses supported by recreational boating in 2007.

154,300: Number of employees supported by recreational boating in 2007.

$900,285,000: Total amount expenditures on waterfowl hunting in 2006.

$12 to $18: Increased value per lake user of Nevada’s Walker Lake for every one-foot increase in lake level.

24,091: Number of “closing and advisory days” at beaches in the U.S. in 2010.

-$115,657: Estimated total impact of California’s Huntington Beach closing for one day due to contamination issues.

$24 billion to $40 billion: Estimated amount of national benefits (in 1990 dollars) of achieving the Clean Water Act’s swimmable water quality goal.


Source: The Importance of Water to the U.S. Economy Part 1: Background Report.