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30 million gallons is about 92 acre ft of water. California uses 70 million acre ft of water per year. Alfalfa in California uses 5.3 million acre ft/year. So t
by njarboe 9y ago
30 million gallons is about 92 acre ft of water. California uses 70 million acre ft of water per year. Alfalfa in California uses 5.3 million acre ft/year. So this plant uses 1/10 the amount of water a very small farm would use. It is hard to imagine it but 30 million gallons is a very small amount of water. If the article said "In San Bernardino, Calif., Nestlé has long paid the U.S. Forest Service an annual rate of $524 to extract about 92 acre ft of water, even during droughts" people would think "That's not much".
- sho 9y agoFor those like me for whom "acre ft" means absolutely nothing, it's about 5,172Hhds[1]. Just kidding, it's 1,233 cubic metres, so 92 acre feet =~ 113,500m³. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogshead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogshead
- njarboe 9y agoIt sounds a bit weird but the first large irrigation projects were used for farming. When you irrigate your fields (measured in acres) to a depth of about a foot each time, it is the natural unit for large water use. Why switch?
- sho 9y agoWho the hell would "irrigate" their fields to a depth of 1 foot? That's not irrigation, it's a literal flood! Unless you're growing rice in a paddy I guess?