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The farmers can use pretty much as much as they want from the aquifers and they pay that $70 for 325 thousand gallons of water. That's how individual water cons

The farmers can use pretty much as much as they want from the aquifers and they pay that $70 for 325 thousand gallons of water. That's how individual water conservation pales in comparison to a farmer paying for $20 more in water. Or a new chip fab plant that uses millions of gallons of water per day.

throwawaysea 5y ago
For what it’s worth, chip fabs mostly recycle water. Intel is also funding water restoration projects to achieve net positive water use. See https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/04/why-intel-tsmc-are-building-water-dependent-chip-plants-in-arizona.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/04/why-intel-tsmc-are-building-... > Glenn O’Donnell, vice president and research director at analyst firm Forrester, told CNBC that chip fabrication plants “recycle water religiously,” adding that it’s a bit like a swimming pool in an enclosed building. > “You need a lot to fill it, but you don’t have to add much to keep it going,” he said. “Also, being in an enclosed space, a lot of the water that evaporates can be captured with a dehumidifier and returned to the pool. The fabs will do similar things with their own water usage.” > Intel notes on its website that it is striving to achieve “net positive water use” in Arizona and that it has funded 15 water restoration projects that aim to benefit the state. “Once fully implemented, these projects will restore an estimated 937 million gallons each year,” the company says.
- jcranmer 5y ago
  Note that most municipal water is recycled in similar fashion (something like 90% of tap water ends up in the sewers directly, and that's low-balling it)--which means you can get great mileage out of municipal systems just by sticking your water treatment intake downstream of your wastewater treatment effluent, although people are somewhat squeamish to discover that this happens. Agricultural use is pretty much the most effective way to export water out of the watershed--the water that is used in the crops is more likely to be lost due to envirotranspiration or simply literally part of the weight of the crop that is exported (especially for leafy crops like lettuce).

throwawaysea 5y ago

For what it’s worth, chip fabs mostly recycle water. Intel is also funding water restoration projects to achieve net positive water use. See https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/04/why-intel-tsmc-are-building-water-dependent-chip-plants-in-arizona.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/04/why-intel-tsmc-are-building-... > Glenn O’Donnell, vice president and research director at analyst firm Forrester, told CNBC that chip fabrication plants “recycle water religiously,” adding that it’s a bit like a swimming pool in an enclosed building. > “You need a lot to fill it, but you don’t have to add much to keep it going,” he said. “Also, being in an enclosed space, a lot of the water that evaporates can be captured with a dehumidifier and returned to the pool. The fabs will do similar things with their own water usage.” > Intel notes on its website that it is striving to achieve “net positive water use” in Arizona and that it has funded 15 water restoration projects that aim to benefit the state. “Once fully implemented, these projects will restore an estimated 937 million gallons each year,” the company says.

jcranmer 5y ago
Note that most municipal water is recycled in similar fashion (something like 90% of tap water ends up in the sewers directly, and that's low-balling it)--which means you can get great mileage out of municipal systems just by sticking your water treatment intake downstream of your wastewater treatment effluent, although people are somewhat squeamish to discover that this happens. Agricultural use is pretty much the most effective way to export water out of the watershed--the water that is used in the crops is more likely to be lost due to envirotranspiration or simply literally part of the weight of the crop that is exported (especially for leafy crops like lettuce).