Saline water has some uses. In 2000, the U.S. used about 62 billion gallons per day of saline water, which was about 15 percent of all water used. But saline water can only be used for certain purposes. The main use was for thermoelectric power-plant cooling. As for the other uses, about 8 percent of water used for industrial purposes was saline, and about 43 percent of all water used for mining purposes was saline. Also, saline water can be desalinated for use as drinking water by putting it through a process to remove the salt from the water. The process costs so much that it isn't used very much right now.