In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes • Hacker News Board

Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes

#11

Post by cardamomo » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 4:57 PM UTC

For those interested in exploring the political and social consequences of this in a near-term (albeit fictional) world, I highly recommend reading "The Water Knife" by Paolo Bacigalupi. From the Goodreads description:

> In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel Velasquez, leg-breaker, assassin, and spy. A Las Vegas water knife, Angel "cuts" water for his boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that her luxurious developments can bloom in the desert, so the rich can stay wet while the poor get dust.

Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes

#12

Post by cronix » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 4:59 PM UTC

omosubi wrote: post #7

yardie wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Great Lakes sources their water from glaciers melting. Too little and too much of a thing it’s still worrying.

Do you have a source for this? I thought they were sourced was almost all rainfall both directly into the lake and from the streams and rivers that surround them

Glaciers formed them, but probably have little to do with sustaining them https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes

Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes

#13

Post by scblock » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:06 PM UTC

cardamomo wrote: post #11

For those interested in exploring the political and social consequences of this in a near-term (albeit fictional) world, I highly recommend reading "The Water Knife" by Paolo Bacigalupi. From the Goodreads description: > In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel Velasquez, leg-breaker, assassin, and spy. A Las Vegas water…

Bacigalupi's near-future fiction is all too believable.

Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes

#14

Post by srameshc » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:10 PM UTC

The same phenomenon is happening is happening in China & India and probably many other parts of he world as well. As we become more a more affluent society, our on water consumption increases. We need to raise awareness at a global level about preserving and saving water.

https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/28-000-riv...

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/photos/rivers...

Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes

#15

Post by quotemstr » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:13 PM UTC

srameshc wrote: post #14

The same phenomenon is happening is happening in China & India and probably many other parts of he world as well. As we become more a more affluent society, our on water consumption increases. We need to raise awareness at a global level about preserving and saving water. https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/28-000-riv... https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/photos/rivers...

That, and build lots of desalination plants. We can engineer our way out of this problem without compromising our quality of life.

Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes

#16

Post by jschwartzi » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:16 PM UTC

When I was a kid, we owned a house out in a small farming community in western Washington State. One of the things we had to do is drill the well a solid 100 feet below the water table, because the upper 60 feet had measurable levels of fecal coliform bacteria. This was fairly rural. Our nearest neighbor was a quarter mile up the road, and we were surrounded by livestock pastures with cattle herds.

I would imagine the current owners of the property have had to re-drill the well at least once as population density in the area increased.

Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes

#17

Post by SuoDuanDao » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:19 PM UTC

romaaeterna wrote: post #5

If this were actually a serious issue, we would be discussing NAWPA again for real. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Water_and_Power... The original blueprint used nukes to dig the trenches, but conventional explosives work just fine.

Is that the origin of the villain's name in 'Tank Girl'?

Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes

#18

Post by mjevans » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:27 PM UTC

Lets 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.

Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes

#19

Post by VBprogrammer » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:27 PM UTC

quotemstr wrote: post #15

srameshc wrote: post #14

The same phenomenon is happening is happening in China & India and probably many other parts of he world as well. As we become more a more affluent society, our on water consumption increases. We need to raise awareness at a global level about preserving and saving water. https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/28-000-riv... https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/photos/rivers...

That, and build lots of desalination plants. We can engineer our way out of this problem without compromising our quality of life.

At what cost? Desalination is not cheap in terms of the energy it uses or even the environmental cost of what to do with the left over brine.

We can certainly be less wasteful at home. Flushing toilet waste with potable water and even to some extent using potable water to bath in are incredible wastes of a precious resource.

Re: In the US, wells being drilled ever deeper as groundwater vanishes

#20

Post by hairytrog » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 5:29 PM UTC

This is poor reporting and possibly poor science. It's not enough to say that it will vanish. We need to know on what timescale it will vanish. I suspect that it will last at least several centuries at current extraction rates. Several hundred years from now, the climate may be completely different, energy might extremely cheap, new continental water distribution might be constructed, etc.