sentences:  Alongside being used for drinking water, surface water is also used for irrigation, wastewater treatment, livestock, industrial uses, hydropower, and recreation.r  It is recorded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that approximately 68 percent of water provided to communities comes from surface water.For USGS water-use reports, surface water is considered freshwater when it contains less than 1,000 milligrams per liter (m/L) of dissolved solids.