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Majority of America's underground water stores are drying up, study finds

thehill.com

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Re: Majority of America's underground water stores are drying up, study finds

#11

Post by freitzkriesler2 »

Article mentions California a lot.

There is absolutely zero reason that California's cities cannot be fed with nuclear heated desalinated seawater or heck, traditionally desalinated sea water.

The only thing holding back this engineering solution are NIMBYs, naive greenies, and mountains of legal paperwork.

Water doesn't go away and we have the solutions to make freshwater. The problems are political, not technical.

Tha solves the city consumption problem which can then allow water run off from the mountains back into the valley where it used to be. That will help restore the aquafiers.

Read up on what the California valleys used to look like before the water was siphoned away to the coastal cities.

Edit: the replies and downd00ts to this post are precisely why California is in its current state. All whiners and no solutions. Enjoy your mess and desertification!

Re: Majority of America's underground water stores are drying up, study finds

#12

Post by arcticbull »

tedk-42 wrote: post #10
cyanydeez wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they're testing some new tech that directly uses the sun to desalinate. Really, what's required for the electric grid is ways to store the energy, and not use it. For places like Arizona, they may need a whole different type of infrastructure of grey water use. Just piping in water ain't gonna be sustainable.

> they're testing some new tech that directly uses the sun to desalinate. We should be implementing technologies we have now today rather than banking on something that might or might not pan out. I don't hate the idea of piping water throughout areas or creating artificial enclosed canals of sorts. But then I'm on the side of thinking that we should advance and terraform the planet rather than try to be more one wit…

So a nuclear power plant adjacent to the ocean and a desal plant?

Re: Majority of America's underground water stores are drying up, study finds

#13

Post by parl_match »

freitzkriesler2 wrote: post #11

Article mentions California a lot. There is absolutely zero reason that California's cities cannot be fed with nuclear heated desalinated seawater or heck, traditionally desalinated sea water. The only thing holding back this engineering solution are NIMBYs, naive greenies, and mountains of legal paperwork. Water doesn't go away and we have the solutions to make freshwater. The problems are political, not technical.…

> before the water was siphoned away to the coastal cities.

Hell, a lot of that wasn't even for cities. Significant and massive lakes, including Lake Tulare, were siphoned away simply to create farmland.

Re: Majority of America's underground water stores are drying up, study finds

#14

Post by arcticbull »

alan-hn wrote: post #9
justrealist wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally 0 impact as compared to farming.

At least farming feeds people rather than taking water from communities purely for profit

In a way - it mostly provides for dairy, which is an incredibly lossy operation.

The "alfalfa in the desert" stuff you hear about isn't for salads. It's feed for cattle.

A gallon of milk requires [edit](4-5 gallons excluding consumption for growing feed, ~800 gallons, contested, fully realized)[1, 2] and a pound of beef requires somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 gallons. [3]

Beef is where the water goes, not Nestle water bottles, which are silly too. You drink about 185 gallons of water per year, meaning 1 pound of beef consumes 10 years worth of your personal drinking budget. Assuming you drank every single drop out of a Nestle water bottle, it really does round to zero compared to agriculture.

[1] https://www.watereducation.org/post/food-facts-how-much-wate...

[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1092652/volume-of-water-...

[3] https://www.watercalculator.org/news/articles/beef-king-big-...

Re: Majority of America's underground water stores are drying up, study finds

#15

Post by asimilator »

alan-hn wrote: post #9
justrealist wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally 0 impact as compared to farming.

At least farming feeds people rather than taking water from communities purely for profit

Farming is not done for profit?

Re: Majority of America's underground water stores are drying up, study finds

#18

Post by mjhay »

freitzkriesler2 wrote: post #11

Article mentions California a lot. There is absolutely zero reason that California's cities cannot be fed with nuclear heated desalinated seawater or heck, traditionally desalinated sea water. The only thing holding back this engineering solution are NIMBYs, naive greenies, and mountains of legal paperwork. Water doesn't go away and we have the solutions to make freshwater. The problems are political, not technical.…

The great majority of water usage in California is for agriculture, not "coastal cities." Things like drip irrigation and not growing alfalfa in the desert are far more realistic (and cheaper) than what you are proposing. This is a solvable problem, even with climate change, but there aren't going to be any silver bullets.

Re: Majority of America's underground water stores are drying up, study finds

#19

Post by pfannkuchen »

alan-hn wrote: post #9
justrealist wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally 0 impact as compared to farming.

At least farming feeds people rather than taking water from communities purely for profit

People do drink the water, presumably.

Re: Majority of America's underground water stores are drying up, study finds

#20

Post by nosrepa »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #8
bryanlarsen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Water is a lot easier to store than electricity. Desalinate while the sun is shining to fill a reservoir that you can pull from 24/7.

True, but it isn't energy, and desal requires firm generation, so you're not using renewables that would've been curtailed but instead competing with load that needs consistent power. Still hopeful considering the cost decline curve of utility scale storage, but it isn't a silver bullet based on solar being free at noon.

But water in a reservoir is one of the oldest ways of storing energy.
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