Yeah that’s like saying the gas in your car comes from a hole in the ground.
Resource extraction is never free.
Comment on Shower thoughts are wasting water.
DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
My water comes from a hole in the backyard and it’s free.
Cryophilia@lemmy.world 4 months ago
DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
It could cost around $0.0025 to pump enough water for a shower. It’s not free but it’s a negligible cost.
Cryophilia@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The cost is that you deplete the aquifer. Generally speaking, water pumped out of the ground doesn’t replenish (except on geologic time scales). That’s what I meant by the fossil fuel comparison. It’s not like taking water from a stream or a lake replenished by snowmelt. Once that aquifer is dry, it’s dry, and the land becomes dead.
DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Hopefully some of my pee from the septic tank makes it over to my well then.
Gnugit@aussie.zone 4 months ago
We just had our dishwasher connected to our rainwater tank so maybe I could justify a few minutes for c/showerthoughts now.
Gnugit@aussie.zone 4 months ago
In my city the water comes from underground too. The problem arises when there is no rain and cleared land produces more runoff than absorbtion.
Coupled with heavy use by people ground water levels are reduced. This not only affects us but trees and plants that rely on these water levels will die off.
However, as the other commenter mentioned, normal citizen use and its affect on this is negligible. It’s when you have industrial water extraction that is the real problem.
Cryophilia@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I did the math for Socal the last major drought, and normal people using water was like 2-5% of the water usage. And that includes lawns and stuff. Farming was the vast majority of water usage.
Gnugit@aussie.zone 4 months ago
Are there any Nestle water extraction plants in SoCal?
Cryophilia@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yep
www.nytimes.com/…/nestle-water-california.html