Have any more improvements been made in the process of removing salt from ocean water in large volume? Is anyone actively still working on this?
In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes
51–60 of 185 posts
Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
But how much of that is irrigated? As I understand it in California there is a lot of irrigated lawns. But I doubt the majority of lawns in the US is irrigated or watered.
Do you own a lawn? Scotland is perhaps the only place I know where you can not water lawn in summer.
I grew up in Ohio and currently live in western PA. I've never once watered my yard.
Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not just price water to reflect supply realities? Why would anyone care about saving water when it's so dirt cheap? "Awareness" seems like a waste of time in comparison.
Does market economics work if there's no way to prevent the tragedy of the commons?
This is the most important question of our era.
Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not just price water to reflect supply realities? Why would anyone care about saving water when it's so dirt cheap? "Awareness" seems like a waste of time in comparison.
Does market economics work if there's no way to prevent the tragedy of the commons?
That's a confusing question. The tragedy of the commons happens specifically when a resource is under- or un-priced.
Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not just price water to reflect supply realities? Why would anyone care about saving water when it's so dirt cheap? "Awareness" seems like a waste of time in comparison.
A lot of people outside of cities have their own groundwater wells, which is at least part of what the article is talking about. How do you price water people are pulling directly from the ground with their own equipment?
Aren't water wells permitted? In that case, you simply require a meter, ideally the cellular or zigbee sort. I'm sure there would be water bandits but it doesn't seem totally impossible.
Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes
#56Lets stop wastefully watering lawns as a starting point. Some places are probably already doing that, but the use of native landscaping needs to spread further.
I like lawns. So do lots of other people. It's okay to expend resources on things that aren't bare essentials. The price mechanism, not social control, is what allows for efficient allocation of scarce resources. Let people who want to pay for the water water their lawns.
Yes, although for that to work water needs to be priced differently from today.
Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being able to "price" something requires existence of a functional market. Markets can only exist when contracts can be enforced. Being able to enforce a contract requires monitoring and ability to issue fines, you also needs appropriate laws. All of the above does not exist when it comes to ground water harvesting - especially in India and even in a police state like China.
Yet companies build plants on the Great Lakes, hoover up all the water, filter it, bottle it, and sell it to the unsuspecting, who happily buy it. I never ever saw bottled water as a kid in Europe. It wasn't until I moved to the US where it appeared to be commonplace. When I went back home to England last year, they've got it in every supermarket I visited. Sad, really. I still just drink out of the tap here in Texas…
Depends on where exactly you live.
Much of the US cities have great tap water. Some places (Flint) get lead going on.
However, much of the water in the US by area is well water. Well water tastes gross, and has some dubious health effects if not filtered right. Bottled water seems reasonable for those people.
Just because bottled water is not useful for you, does not mean it's not useful for anyone.
Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being able to "price" something requires existence of a functional market. Markets can only exist when contracts can be enforced. Being able to enforce a contract requires monitoring and ability to issue fines, you also needs appropriate laws. All of the above does not exist when it comes to ground water harvesting - especially in India and even in a police state like China.
If it makes you feel any better, California is perfectly capable of doing all that, but they still don't, and are stuck in a tragedy-of-the-commons type water shortage where farmers will gladly waste $1 of water to produce 5 cents of crops, because the alternative is to get nothing.
Additionally, if they don't waste $1 of water to produce $0.05 of crops & do nothing with it instead, they lose the water rights next year.
Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
The largest water user, at least in California, is agriculture. Fortunately they're now planting fewer acres of low-value crops such as cotton. But other crops use an insane amount: 1 walnut 4.9 gallons 1 almond 1.1 gallons 1 pistachio 0.75 gallons And it looks like Palm Springs is a big water user. Must be all those golf courses? https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/wheres-calif...
I heard meat/milk production uses a significantly larger amount of water (in addition to the crops eaten by the animals).
It’s the waste from cattle that’s a bigger problem. And areas with little rainfall seem to be particularly bad at handling all the excess nitrogen.
Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes
#60Have any more improvements been made in the process of removing salt from ocean water in large volume? Is anyone actively still working on this?
Did a quick google search and found that Israel launched a large desalination plant back in 2015 (uses reverse osmosis). Here's the source: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/534996/megascale-desalina...