4 ms·

In chip making they remove all the impurities making it PURE h20, which is in fact too pure to be just dumped back in the ground, needs to be re-mineralized bef

In chip making they remove all the impurities making it PURE h20, which is in fact too pure to be just dumped back in the ground, needs to be re-mineralized before it can be dumped.

LgWoodenBadger 5y ago
If that's all that it needs, why would they not recycle it back into the water supply?
- jhpankow 5y ago
  Clean, pure, delicious semiconductor wastewater.
  - mentos 5y ago
    "It's got what plants crave"
    - throwaway946513 5y ago
      "It's got electrolytes!"
  - NikolaeVarius 5y ago
    You do understand that literal sewage is treated and returned to the water supply just fine
- sgc 5y ago
  Probably better to just re-filter it back to pure H2O and reuse on site.
- rrss 5y ago
  From the same verge article: > Last year, the company pledged that by 2030 it will restore and return more freshwater than it uses. It’s nearing that benchmark in Arizona, where Intel says it cleaned up and returned 95 percent of the freshwater it used in 2020
  - jjoonathan 5y ago
    Yeah. It's unfortunate that alongside this incredibly important detail the article carries a bunch of highly judgemental wording that encourages people to incorrectly interpret "use" not as "cycle through" but as "remove from water supply and banish to a superfund site." The rest of the comment section is guilty of this too. I fully appreciate the need for independent verification, but assuming the worst is not that, and it actually leads to bad incentives in the same way as assuming the best (or refusing to think about it at all) leads to bad incentives.
    - rrss 5y ago
      yeah. If there is something I’m missing, hopefully someone can point out what it is, because I don’t really understand why this matters.
    - 8note 5y ago
      Historically, companies have shown that they will do the worst imaginable. The bar needs to be set high on holding them too account, or else the shareholders will get their way and Arizona will gets new superfund site. Being charitable will be abused by companies
TimTheTinker 5y ago
Sounds like an excellent candidate for re-use.
bernawil 5y ago
> which is in fact too pure to be just dumped back in the ground, needs to be re-mineralized before it can be dumped how so? isn't rainwater also "pure H2O"?
- bluGill 5y ago
  No, rainwater has dissolved air and dust in it.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- smolder 5y ago
  Good question. I assume rainwater picks up minerals naturally as it filters through dirt and whatnot, but then why couldn't that be the case for fab wastewater? It also makes me think about the sheer amount of polluted filth that must wash out of a city after it gets rained on.

In chip making they remove all the impurities making it PURE h20, which is in fact too pure to be just dumped back in the ground, needs to be re-mineralized before it can be dumped.

LgWoodenBadger 5y ago

If that's all that it needs, why would they not recycle it back into the water supply?

jhpankow 5y ago
Clean, pure, delicious semiconductor wastewater.
- mentos 5y ago
  "It's got what plants crave"
  - throwaway946513 5y ago
    "It's got electrolytes!"
- NikolaeVarius 5y ago
  You do understand that literal sewage is treated and returned to the water supply just fine
sgc 5y ago
Probably better to just re-filter it back to pure H2O and reuse on site.
rrss 5y ago
From the same verge article: > Last year, the company pledged that by 2030 it will restore and return more freshwater than it uses. It’s nearing that benchmark in Arizona, where Intel says it cleaned up and returned 95 percent of the freshwater it used in 2020
- jjoonathan 5y ago
  Yeah. It's unfortunate that alongside this incredibly important detail the article carries a bunch of highly judgemental wording that encourages people to incorrectly interpret "use" not as "cycle through" but as "remove from water supply and banish to a superfund site." The rest of the comment section is guilty of this too. I fully appreciate the need for independent verification, but assuming the worst is not that, and it actually leads to bad incentives in the same way as assuming the best (or refusing to think about it at all) leads to bad incentives.
  - rrss 5y ago
    yeah. If there is something I’m missing, hopefully someone can point out what it is, because I don’t really understand why this matters.
  - 8note 5y ago
    Historically, companies have shown that they will do the worst imaginable. The bar needs to be set high on holding them too account, or else the shareholders will get their way and Arizona will gets new superfund site. Being charitable will be abused by companies

TimTheTinker 5y ago

Sounds like an excellent candidate for re-use.

bernawil 5y ago

> which is in fact too pure to be just dumped back in the ground, needs to be re-mineralized before it can be dumped how so? isn't rainwater also "pure H2O"?

bluGill 5y ago
No, rainwater has dissolved air and dust in it.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
smolder 5y ago
Good question. I assume rainwater picks up minerals naturally as it filters through dirt and whatnot, but then why couldn't that be the case for fab wastewater? It also makes me think about the sheer amount of polluted filth that must wash out of a city after it gets rained on.