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Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

thestate.com

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Re: Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

#51

Post by jmknoll »

londons_explore wrote: post #10
swebs wrote: post #4

>...granted Google permission Wednesday to pump 549 million gallons of water out of the ground each year to cool servers at its sprawling plant in Berkeley County. >DHEC’s decision is the latest development in a bitter fight over whether the company should get state approval to withdraw from a major groundwater source that, critics say, is dwindling and in jeopardy of being further depleted. Just put the warmed water…

This water will be used in evaporative coolers. There won't be warmed water to return. The water gets recycled 50-100 times, and each time a small percentage evaporates into a cloud. The cloud really does make clouds.

What’s stopping the collection and re-condensation of the evaporated water, which can then be returned to the river.

Re: Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

#52

Post by hombre_fatal »

ensiferum wrote: post #8

Wow using ground water to cool down computers? Is there no other water supply available? Ofc a Google rep says how they are environmentally committed. Obv they'd never say if they didn't give a shit. What a useless comment. Clean unpolluted ground water is probably the most precious resource there is.

> Clean unpolluted ground water is probably the most precious resource there is.

Apparently not given that it costs peanuts.

Re: Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

#55

Post by gotAnyEvidence »

xyzzyz wrote: post #44

If this was a rubber gasket plant in South Carolina getting a water permit, it would never have hit the news.

Do you have any evidence for this claim? Does comparing two separate things automatically make them equivalent?

On the flip side, when Foxconn wanted 7 million gallons of water each day from Lake Michigan for it's manufacturing plant, it hit the news.

- https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-foxconn-air-p...

Re: Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

#56

Post by UncleMeat »

swebs wrote: post #40
igetspam wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does but Google has a very very strict policy about not greasing wheels. People have been fired over it and not reimbursed for the out of pocket expense. It made building infrastructure in India take exponentially longer than competitors who were willing to play according to the unspoken rules. Google can't be trusted but not everything they do or every way they operate is bad.

Google has spent $21,770,000 on lobbying in 2018. https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D00006782...

The open secrets data includes independent contributions from Google employees. The engineers donating to Clinton in 2016 aren't engaging in corruption.

Re: Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

#57

Post by Merrill »

>In addition to Google’s request in the Charleston area, mega farms in central South Carolina have been under scrutiny over the amount of groundwater they use to irrigate crops each summer.

549 million gallons is about 1685 acre feet, which isn't very much irrigation water. South Carolina golf courses alone use 9.7 million gallons/day of groundwater for irrigation or 3,540 million gallons per year. SC golf courses use a combined total of groundwater and surface water of 14,991 millon gallons per year.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/sc/nwis/water_use?format=html_tab...

Re: Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

#59

Post by zannaxy »

tyingq wrote: post #14
londons_explore wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This water will be used in evaporative coolers. There won't be warmed water to return. The water gets recycled 50-100 times, and each time a small percentage evaporates into a cloud. The cloud really does make clouds.

Like this... https://intra.ece.ucr.edu/~sren/project/water/img/water_cool...

How clouds are made! As my friend Tanya would say to keep me cheerful near those smokestacks.

Re: Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

#60

Post by igetspam »

a_imho wrote: post #46
igetspam wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the implied argument is that lobbying is inherently corrupt?

In your opinion what differentiates the two?

Legality, public disclosure and outcomes. Bribery is a way to ensure an outcome in your favor, regardless of law or process. Lobbying is using your resources to argue a position. Lobbying can be a corrupt process but it isn't inherently so and lobbying doesn't come with a guaranteed outcome.
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