gallons per-capita day:  This is used in several ways: 1) total water use (including losses) , 2) total water actually used by residential, commercial and industrial users, and 3) residential water used.

1)  The losses in (1) are an issue because our water lines are often very old and leaky, and we are losing an unacceptably high amount of water (somewhere over 12%).  A program of improvements and replacements is always underway, but funding comes from the Water Fund (funded by our water rates), and there is always pressure to keep the water-rates as low as possible.

2) Total water used is a common way to compare water used between different cities.

3) The residential use is sometimes quoted because it is the only use that most individual Flagstaff residents can control.