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> People I know in the area with wells had them go dry after the nestle plant opened. These were wells that had previously been high (for wells) throughout, jus

> People I know in the area with wells had them go dry after the nestle plant opened. These were wells that had previously been high (for wells) throughout, just drying up. That (if true) is a legitimate complaint and Nestle should make them whole. Edit: as someone else noted, this is less than one swimming pool's worth of water per day. If wells are going dry because of that, they were marginal at best.

r00fus 9y ago
> Edit: as someone else noted, this is less than one swimming pool's worth of water per day. We're talking an olympic size swimming pool @660k gals each day, not the backyard type which is probably 1/6 the size [1]. Also rates matter. It's not how much is there, it's the depletion rate - recharge rate (families probably don't use nearly that much per day, so over time it would be many many olympic sized swimming pools). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic-size_swimming_pool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic-size_swimming_pool
Scaevolus 9y ago
Swimming pools are huge and not often emptied. Homes usually pay ~$6,000 to fill a pool. 576,000 gallons / day is ~6000 people's daily usage. Wells have specific recovery rates. I don't know whether the amount they're pumping will exceed that rate-- environmental studies should include that information.
- coolso 9y ago
  > Homes usually pay ~$6,000 to fill a pool. Where? I'm seeing anecdotes of an average of $100-300 to fill up a pool with a hose, and $1250 to bring a truck in.
- Rebelgecko 9y ago
  I think you need to double check those numbers. Last time I refilled a pool it was a maybe $250-$500, and that was with summer water rates in the middle of a desert. The average person's pool is definitely not 576,000 gallons (that's about 160 ft by 100 feet if your pool's mean depth is 5 feet). Even if it were, $8 per hcf seems high.
- Turing_Machine 9y ago
  > Homes usually pay ~$6,000 to fill a pool. Nonsense. Maybe in Phoenix or Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Not in Michigan.
  - Zeta_Function 9y ago
    I don’t know anything about the price of water in any of those places, can you cite some numbers? By the way, why are you so passionate about this topic? You’ve made 17 comments on this thread, or 17% of all of the comments here as of this writing. Thst seems extreme to me. The one I’m responding to isn’t substantive, another is just a single word. Dominating a conversation with sheer volume seems extreme, and impolite.
    - Turing_Machine 9y ago
      > You’ve made 17 comments on this thread, or 17% of all of the comments here as of this writing. Because I hate innumeracy.
      - portofcall 9y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16759428 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16759428 Following that through, you clearly hate being backed into a corner, and don’t mind engaging in “innacuracy” when it suits you.
falcolas 9y ago
Wells in aquifers don't work quite that way - they aren't open bodies of water that can flow freely. When a well draws water, it creates a cone-like depression of the water level around the well (think of all those nifty gravity diagrams of planets). A well which was drilled sufficiently deep to work with existing draws can be made "dry" by getting a new neighbor who draws enough to lower the aquifer below their well head. Those wells can be made to work again, but only by having a company come in and make the well (perhaps significantly) deeper. An search on "aquifer drawdown" will provide a lot of reference material.

r00fus 9y ago

> Edit: as someone else noted, this is less than one swimming pool's worth of water per day. We're talking an olympic size swimming pool @660k gals each day, not the backyard type which is probably 1/6 the size [1]. Also rates matter. It's not how much is there, it's the depletion rate - recharge rate (families probably don't use nearly that much per day, so over time it would be many many olympic sized swimming pools). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic-size_swimming_pool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic-size_swimming_pool

Scaevolus 9y ago

Swimming pools are huge and not often emptied. Homes usually pay ~$6,000 to fill a pool. 576,000 gallons / day is ~6000 people's daily usage. Wells have specific recovery rates. I don't know whether the amount they're pumping will exceed that rate-- environmental studies should include that information.

coolso 9y ago
> Homes usually pay ~$6,000 to fill a pool. Where? I'm seeing anecdotes of an average of $100-300 to fill up a pool with a hose, and $1250 to bring a truck in.
Rebelgecko 9y ago
I think you need to double check those numbers. Last time I refilled a pool it was a maybe $250-$500, and that was with summer water rates in the middle of a desert. The average person's pool is definitely not 576,000 gallons (that's about 160 ft by 100 feet if your pool's mean depth is 5 feet). Even if it were, $8 per hcf seems high.
Turing_Machine 9y ago
> Homes usually pay ~$6,000 to fill a pool. Nonsense. Maybe in Phoenix or Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Not in Michigan.
- Zeta_Function 9y ago
  I don’t know anything about the price of water in any of those places, can you cite some numbers? By the way, why are you so passionate about this topic? You’ve made 17 comments on this thread, or 17% of all of the comments here as of this writing. Thst seems extreme to me. The one I’m responding to isn’t substantive, another is just a single word. Dominating a conversation with sheer volume seems extreme, and impolite.
  - Turing_Machine 9y ago
    > You’ve made 17 comments on this thread, or 17% of all of the comments here as of this writing. Because I hate innumeracy.
    - portofcall 9y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16759428 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16759428 Following that through, you clearly hate being backed into a corner, and don’t mind engaging in “innacuracy” when it suits you.

falcolas 9y ago

Wells in aquifers don't work quite that way - they aren't open bodies of water that can flow freely. When a well draws water, it creates a cone-like depression of the water level around the well (think of all those nifty gravity diagrams of planets). A well which was drilled sufficiently deep to work with existing draws can be made "dry" by getting a new neighbor who draws enough to lower the aquifer below their well head. Those wells can be made to work again, but only by having a company come in and make the well (perhaps significantly) deeper. An search on "aquifer drawdown" will provide a lot of reference material.