the article was discussed on the veganoutreach.org bulletin
boards. Those boards were retired, but Matt Ball (of Vegan
Outreach) did a quick calculation:
(# pounds of beef produced in 1 year) X 12K = total_water
and it turned out that total_water was greater than the sum
of all water used in the US, in a year! Thus this claim is dubious
and probably another exaggeration.
The Vegan Outreach boards are no longer online, but perhaps they
will put the calculations back up someday in an FAQ or other
document?
Tom Billings