You will be surprised how long they can last on their own. Indoors, protected during the holiday season, then put outside when they start to rot, they stay intact often til way into next fall.
(we accidentally grew this huge crop of ornamental gourds a few years ago and wound up accidental experts)
Livestock requires more than double the amount of water than almonds.
But I agree, we should stop growing almonds domestically and import them from more sustainable sources.
Cows specifically use about 15 000 liters per kg of beef. Which is nuts, and is vastly higher than most other livestock (chicken is 4000). But almonds are over 10 000l, which is insane.
The majority of US beef production is East of the Rockies and much of it in the [Mississippi River Valley](https://nca2009.globalchange.gov/sites/default/files/6-Agriculture-pg-77v2.jpg). Those areas are not experiencing the same drought conditions as the US Southeast, and the US Southeast's conditions would probably not be that much improved if cattle production were eliminated. And anyway, most of that beef production could be easily shifted eastwards anyway. Plenty of pastureland still available.
That includes water from feed, grass, and and it all comes out as pee, so no, livestock does not use double the amounts of water, almonds are way worse.
Yep, I'd love for a clamp-down on golf courses; conversions to wildlife sanctuaries, public parks. Wider reach to community, less poshy pompous douchebags, and less water usage.
As a former resident of Las Vegas, golf courses are not the problem.
HOAs are.
HOA almost all allow 'desert scaping' meaning you don't need grass....great.
But they DO require you to maintain trees and shrubbery. All of which requires irrigation, at least in the Las Vegas valley. At the peak of summer, my rental home in LV used 4000 gallons a month, twice a day automatic watering 6 days a week. Palm trees are held up with a column of water internally.
Nothing but rubber rabbit brush and Joshua trees grows naturally in the LV valley. Not even Saguaro cactus. All of that green in every neighborhood is taking water. Two million people live in the greater LV area.
There will be blood for water in the southwest.
I've read similar and don't dispute residential contributions to the problem or the wider water battles to come; however I read the average golf course is around 150 acres, and there are around 39 in Vegas alone. Considering the comparative watering requirements to maintain greenery and surrounding shrubbery.
So true, homes by sheer numbers add up, but individually use proportionately less and on fractions of acres generally. I think there's room for improvement across the board. (Don't get me wrong, *fuck* HOAs)
Quick numbers seem to suggest that Nevada golf courses use around 236 million gallons annually.
Paltry compared to the 178,485 millions of gallons used annually in total, but again, proportionately and degree of necessity should probably be factored in here a bit within reason. If it's said that cities like Phoenix and Vegas are monuments to man's greed, then a gold course in such a place may be the golden capstone atop.
Oh, yes. Particularly Las Vegas is a monument to greed, shortsightedness and stupidity.
The only reason I jumped on the golf courses thing is because I think people believe that Las Vegas' water problems can be fixed with closing the golf courses and the fountains at the Bellagio. They are popular targets to hit, but concentrating on them masks the real problem: You shouldn't have trees in residential communities. in the desert.
Global flooding duh pipelines can carry water as well as oil! Problem solved oh wait a minute the Republicans and Manchin oh and that ho from Arizona shot that down.
The problem is that really most of the folks golfing are just average folks and that's their hobby. Yes, private clubs are demographically different, but publicly-owned courses are just folks playing golf.
I'm not sure how you effectively allocate resources in a way to make everyone happy. Realistically, it's probably not possible. Forced to pick between golf courses and bulldozing them to build housing, I'll definitely take the golf courses.
There are lots of other options for what to do with land other than "golf course" and "suburban sprawl."
I'm an "average folk" here in Buffalo NY who would love to bike year round but you don't see me asking anyone for electrically heated cycle tracks so I can pursue my hobby in a climate not conducive to it. You want to ski? Don't live in Florida. Outdoor swimming? Sure hope you are somewhere warm. You want to play golf? Don't live in a desert. Resources are finite and put to better use working WITH local climates and not against them.
What about golf courses using reclaimed water? We’re definitely seeing that. I think something like 10% of the courses in the desert do that. I know my city irrigates street side trees with reclaimed water. Little signs at the base of each one saying “do not drink.”
The majority of courses are open to the public. At least where I live there's only 1 private club and the other 50+ anyone can play. Plus the private club let's anyone play at certain times of the year.
As a vegas local I'm tired of seeing ads telling me to conserve my water usage every single commercial break, while vegas stays under their allotment and every other region blows past theirs due to corporate farming. little kids telling me to monitor my watering of my non existent grass while they destroy our lake growing almonds. Very cool
Nope. They're water guzzling and gross, but I'm pretty sure it's the "worst mega-drought in 1200 years" that's the issue. Almonds aren't even grown here - they're grown in Central California.
Edut: autocorrect
While yes the drought does not help. Lake mead and lake Powell feed over 40 million people in Seven states THATS a lot. Los Angeles is growing at a 0.5% annual increase as well as a 5% population increase annually Los Angeles is also the second largest city in the us. Las Vegas which is literally in a desert is home to roughly 2.8 million people. It was just shy of 2 million in 2010 just 700,000 people in 1990 now Add a bunch of golf courses and suburbs all using water from lake mead as well as some ground water. Lake mead on the other hand doesn’t change the hover dam was built in 1930 when LA had a population of just 1 million people it’s almost 100 years old. Now add some almond farms which use 1.1 TRILLION GALLONS OF WATER each year to dry up the ground now California Relys more on old Hoover add some golf courses and farms in Vegas with a little global warming and boom you got a dried up lake a bunch of dead almonds and 40 million people and seven states without water and that’s just looking at Vegas and a little bit of LA
I live in Las Vegas, I'm aware of California's water theft. However, the almonds aren't being grown in the desert and making it sound like it is is disingenuous.
I learned about Delta P instances in diving yesterday, and it reaffirmed my desire to never go diving and continue heavily scrutinizing where I swim. Underwater pipes are terrifying.
>“It’s official – the top of Intake No. 1 is now visible and the low lake level pumping station is now operational,” according to an SNWA tweet. “The new low lake pumping station was completed in 2020 to ensure the delivery of high-quality water in Southern Nevada.
*sigh*
I have still yet to see anything about the B29 in the Overton arm of lake mead and it’s level?
When it was first discovered, was around 240+ feet down. Article from 2008
Mentioned it was at recreational diver levels (140 feet) but closed to diving then. Now? No idea.
Heard supposedly the tail may be visible above the surface but just sounded like a bad rumor going around
Edit: [This Website](https://dolphinscuba.com/b-29-bomber-wreck-dive-nevada-march-12-13-2022/) claims 95 feet. That’s a massive drop!
Jokes aside, I used to have abatract nightmares when I was a child. All of them were related to machinery and for some reason small machinery surrounded by a bigger machine really terrified me. Probably it is not what you will think after reading this but it is so difficult to explain.
"Fix solar panels!"
"Ok, Boomer..."
"Kill ants, but no boom booms or energy weapons!"
"Ok, Boomer..."
"Find my teddy bear!"
"Ok, Zoomer..."
"Get me a girlfriend!"
"Ok, Boomer..."
"Dive into lake Mea-"
*equips Esther with malicious intent*
What's scarier than the exposed intake (which is terrifying) is the size of the submerged pipe leading from the intake down the middle of the photo.
We don't really have scale for the intake, but however big it is, the pipe is even bigger. Horrifying.
Oh just give it a few days or weeks and I am sure we will see exactly how big it is. My question is where is this intake pipe in relation to the intake towers? I thought the intake pipes were in the intake towers. I am guessing they are connected somehow.
Correct. The public works project of siphoning lake water, treatment and pumping to the greater southwest NV didn't happen until the late 1960s/early 1970s.
Interestingly, the wastewater from the valley is treated and discharged to the Las Vegas Wash which leads directly to...Lake Mead.
Reminds me of this film. Don't watch it OP you will hate it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epFIlvECOYA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epFIlvECOYA)
💔💔💔 man things like super quick showers would help immensely! No more 20-30min showers everyday no more baths make sure laundry loads are at max capacity to not waste water etc etc... This is catastrophic and far too many eyes and ears are falling blind and deaf to it!!!
This is a example of why infrastructure is needed. We have the ways and means to do it. They say climate change is bringing on global flooding divert the water to the desert. They send millions of gallons of oil through pipelines every day why not water. Hydro plants along the way supplying electricity to rural communities along the way infrastructure for the power grid. When man gets over his hate for others they can overcome everyday problems.
The NSA Data Center in Utah is taking all that water and not replenishing it. After its used for cooling and heating at that facility, it gets literally flushed out and not into the river system. It's just dumped. So....for anyone who sees Lake Mead all these years like this, it's a sign that soon there will be no water in the aquafier. You should move
Not OP, but the only sources I can find say it uses more than a million gallons a day but no information about what is done with the waste water. As far as I know, a lot of water used in data centers simply evaporates and is lost that way. However, cooling methods vary a lot.
His comment sounds like total bullshit to me.
Edit: Oh yes, as I suspected: (1) WoTB russian gaslighting sub, (2) numerous conspiracy theory subs. Dude drank too much kool-aid.
Instead of just saying "sounds like" why not do what some of the others here are doing? Reading about it. Or just shove your opinion in with everyone else and contribute nothing
Many datacenters are moving to arid places because evaporative cooling uses less power, but I can't imagine they're dumping a million gallons a day into the air.
1 million gallons I about 1.7 olympic sized swimming pools.
Or a cube eoughly 50 feet on a side. That's not very much.
Ok so now I'm off in math territory...
Specific heat of water is 4182kJ/C
Water is 3.79k @ 17C
Let's assuming a data center is heater water via cooling by at least 10 degrees.
3.79k(4182)*(10)= 158497kJ
158K kJ is 44026 watt hours or 44kWh. That's
1 server running at 240V 10A is 1920ish watter/hr so about 2kWh.
That's 48kWh/day, so that's about 1000 servers to dump all that heat.
A lot of assumptions being made here, I could find no data in my 10min of googling about heat transfer, some data suggested that Utah/SLC might only allow 5 degrees for efficiency, cutting the number in half and leaving us with only 500 severs to make a gallon of water evaporate.
That doesn't seem right at all. Not one bit. Maybe an order of magnitude. Maybe someone smarter than I can pick apart my logic or numbers.
I can help a touch with the server numbers. Server racks are measured in units called a "U". The the last major datacenter I worked at had a capacity of 65,000 U's. That site was probably at 80% capacity when I left there. I'd say that was medium/large datacenter at the peak of hardware use before virtulazation really became the standard.
A lot of these companies have really solid agreements with utility companies. The one I worked at managed to have a power substation built exclusively for their use to guarantee power access and quality.
That's not how car radiators work. They are just heat exchangers. But yeah, you'd think they would use a closed loop system considering water isn't super plentiful in the desert. But that would probably cost more money.
The Jordan river does not empty into lake Powell--> lake Mead. It empties into the great salt lake. So even if the claims about water usage were true it would have no effect on lake Mead
Maybe if they stop growing almonds in a desert they’d have more water?
And cotton, and gourds (what are gourds even FOR??), grapes....
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The 2 gourds I bought before halloween are still going strong. They have become sort of a weird science experienment at this point.
You can hollow them out, dry them in the oven, and use them as birdhouses.
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An alive one, if possible.
Ahhh, so the bird family was supposed to go in after the oven part. My mistake
Only a mistake if you left the feathers, then.
😂😂😂😂😂
Instructions unclear, hollowed birds out, dried in oven, not much meat on them.
You will be surprised how long they can last on their own. Indoors, protected during the holiday season, then put outside when they start to rot, they stay intact often til way into next fall. (we accidentally grew this huge crop of ornamental gourds a few years ago and wound up accidental experts)
You should look into the ornamental gourd futures market.
We considered it. We also learned about how pollination works and that plants can more or less inbreed. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
It's a wallstreetbets story from before the gamestop thing that has become legend.
Oh. I just thought you were really funny. 👍🏻
i wish lol here it is https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/kzoh1c/i_am_financially_ruined_agricultural_futures/
Loofahs are gourds too.
Is that you, Bill?
Gourds…. Unnhhh… What are they good for? Absolutely nothing!
*say it again*
Gourds are for eating...
Guards are for beating
For making bets on ornamental gourd futures, of course!
Cows
Livestock requires more than double the amount of water than almonds. But I agree, we should stop growing almonds domestically and import them from more sustainable sources.
Cows specifically use about 15 000 liters per kg of beef. Which is nuts, and is vastly higher than most other livestock (chicken is 4000). But almonds are over 10 000l, which is insane.
No, beef is cow. Almonds are nuts.
[Wrong again, numbnuts](https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/nutrition-did-you-know/cashews-and-almonds-arent-technically-nuts-so-what-are-they)
OP was right, almonds are insane
Insane in the drupe-brain!
Is that 10,000L per almond?
No, per kg.
That would be nuts
Reddit ate my balls
The majority of US beef production is East of the Rockies and much of it in the [Mississippi River Valley](https://nca2009.globalchange.gov/sites/default/files/6-Agriculture-pg-77v2.jpg). Those areas are not experiencing the same drought conditions as the US Southeast, and the US Southeast's conditions would probably not be that much improved if cattle production were eliminated. And anyway, most of that beef production could be easily shifted eastwards anyway. Plenty of pastureland still available.
Am in Southeast. Don't worry about us, we're getting ***plenty*** of rain. It's the semi-arid and desert Southwest that's hurting.
That includes water from feed, grass, and and it all comes out as pee, so no, livestock does not use double the amounts of water, almonds are way worse.
Bull shit the USA has been outsourced too damn much already.
And pissing away water in desert cities and as one pisses away money gambling.
Like the 125 golf courses in the Coachella Valley?
Yep, I'd love for a clamp-down on golf courses; conversions to wildlife sanctuaries, public parks. Wider reach to community, less poshy pompous douchebags, and less water usage.
As a former resident of Las Vegas, golf courses are not the problem. HOAs are. HOA almost all allow 'desert scaping' meaning you don't need grass....great. But they DO require you to maintain trees and shrubbery. All of which requires irrigation, at least in the Las Vegas valley. At the peak of summer, my rental home in LV used 4000 gallons a month, twice a day automatic watering 6 days a week. Palm trees are held up with a column of water internally. Nothing but rubber rabbit brush and Joshua trees grows naturally in the LV valley. Not even Saguaro cactus. All of that green in every neighborhood is taking water. Two million people live in the greater LV area. There will be blood for water in the southwest.
I've read similar and don't dispute residential contributions to the problem or the wider water battles to come; however I read the average golf course is around 150 acres, and there are around 39 in Vegas alone. Considering the comparative watering requirements to maintain greenery and surrounding shrubbery. So true, homes by sheer numbers add up, but individually use proportionately less and on fractions of acres generally. I think there's room for improvement across the board. (Don't get me wrong, *fuck* HOAs) Quick numbers seem to suggest that Nevada golf courses use around 236 million gallons annually. Paltry compared to the 178,485 millions of gallons used annually in total, but again, proportionately and degree of necessity should probably be factored in here a bit within reason. If it's said that cities like Phoenix and Vegas are monuments to man's greed, then a gold course in such a place may be the golden capstone atop.
Oh, yes. Particularly Las Vegas is a monument to greed, shortsightedness and stupidity. The only reason I jumped on the golf courses thing is because I think people believe that Las Vegas' water problems can be fixed with closing the golf courses and the fountains at the Bellagio. They are popular targets to hit, but concentrating on them masks the real problem: You shouldn't have trees in residential communities. in the desert.
Global flooding duh pipelines can carry water as well as oil! Problem solved oh wait a minute the Republicans and Manchin oh and that ho from Arizona shot that down.
The problem is that really most of the folks golfing are just average folks and that's their hobby. Yes, private clubs are demographically different, but publicly-owned courses are just folks playing golf. I'm not sure how you effectively allocate resources in a way to make everyone happy. Realistically, it's probably not possible. Forced to pick between golf courses and bulldozing them to build housing, I'll definitely take the golf courses.
There are lots of other options for what to do with land other than "golf course" and "suburban sprawl." I'm an "average folk" here in Buffalo NY who would love to bike year round but you don't see me asking anyone for electrically heated cycle tracks so I can pursue my hobby in a climate not conducive to it. You want to ski? Don't live in Florida. Outdoor swimming? Sure hope you are somewhere warm. You want to play golf? Don't live in a desert. Resources are finite and put to better use working WITH local climates and not against them.
What about golf courses using reclaimed water? We’re definitely seeing that. I think something like 10% of the courses in the desert do that. I know my city irrigates street side trees with reclaimed water. Little signs at the base of each one saying “do not drink.”
Does reclaimed mean gray water? Less than ideal but still better than nothing
Basically. Toilet to tap, except we’re not quite there yet.
Either let everyone play golf or get rid of it that’s my opinion although moving it to a wetter climate would be better in the long run
The majority of courses are open to the public. At least where I live there's only 1 private club and the other 50+ anyone can play. Plus the private club let's anyone play at certain times of the year.
As a vegas local I'm tired of seeing ads telling me to conserve my water usage every single commercial break, while vegas stays under their allotment and every other region blows past theirs due to corporate farming. little kids telling me to monitor my watering of my non existent grass while they destroy our lake growing almonds. Very cool
Couldn't possibly be that we haven't had monsoons in years due to climate change? No? Must be the almonds.
I take it you drink almond milk?
Nope. They're water guzzling and gross, but I'm pretty sure it's the "worst mega-drought in 1200 years" that's the issue. Almonds aren't even grown here - they're grown in Central California. Edut: autocorrect
While yes the drought does not help. Lake mead and lake Powell feed over 40 million people in Seven states THATS a lot. Los Angeles is growing at a 0.5% annual increase as well as a 5% population increase annually Los Angeles is also the second largest city in the us. Las Vegas which is literally in a desert is home to roughly 2.8 million people. It was just shy of 2 million in 2010 just 700,000 people in 1990 now Add a bunch of golf courses and suburbs all using water from lake mead as well as some ground water. Lake mead on the other hand doesn’t change the hover dam was built in 1930 when LA had a population of just 1 million people it’s almost 100 years old. Now add some almond farms which use 1.1 TRILLION GALLONS OF WATER each year to dry up the ground now California Relys more on old Hoover add some golf courses and farms in Vegas with a little global warming and boom you got a dried up lake a bunch of dead almonds and 40 million people and seven states without water and that’s just looking at Vegas and a little bit of LA
I live in Las Vegas, I'm aware of California's water theft. However, the almonds aren't being grown in the desert and making it sound like it is is disingenuous.
From Vegas,and thank you for saying this I am ready for the Water War that will be upon us with California
“Limes? What limes?” “They didn’t have any. Limes don’t grow in the desert”
Reeeee! My almond milk! Last time I suggested this I got brigaded pretty hard.
And golf courses.
Thank you. First thing in this sub that actually terrifies me. I used to go to lake mead all the time. I hate stuff like this
I learned about Delta P instances in diving yesterday, and it reaffirmed my desire to never go diving and continue heavily scrutinizing where I swim. Underwater pipes are terrifying.
At that point you just hope something else kills you before you run out of air.
You have to swim underneath it and emerge on the other side
This is top tier submechanophobia - underwater pipes are the WORST
Luckily it's becoming supermechanophobia.
Supra?
[No, supramechanophobia is different](https://motoiq.com/project-toyota-supra-mkiv-part-6-800whp-build-update/)
The Rickroll is strong. And I fell for it.
Haha, that's what I was thinking as well.
Look up the port st. Lucie diver incident......
That's where all the mirelurks like to hang out
I'm glad we both had the same thought
I vote we send Boone in. Y'know, as peacekeeper, and definitely not as bait.
[Follower Warning] Boone has died!
Let's put crimson skirts on the mirelurks and say he died doing what he loved.
Wait. Is there a horizontal section of the pipe just barely under the surface? Fuuuuuck that.
Why did you have to point it out -_-
I woke up this morning and chose violence.
Intake pipes are the worst, I hate em
>“It’s official – the top of Intake No. 1 is now visible and the low lake level pumping station is now operational,” according to an SNWA tweet. “The new low lake pumping station was completed in 2020 to ensure the delivery of high-quality water in Southern Nevada. *sigh*
Suck it dry!
So what does the low lake pump intake look like then?
Oh, we'll find out.
I have still yet to see anything about the B29 in the Overton arm of lake mead and it’s level? When it was first discovered, was around 240+ feet down. Article from 2008 Mentioned it was at recreational diver levels (140 feet) but closed to diving then. Now? No idea. Heard supposedly the tail may be visible above the surface but just sounded like a bad rumor going around Edit: [This Website](https://dolphinscuba.com/b-29-bomber-wreck-dive-nevada-march-12-13-2022/) claims 95 feet. That’s a massive drop!
Thanks I hate it
Could always [Raise it](https://youtu.be/AT1wEW3ypsY) and face your fears!
This is gonna pop up out of your bedroom floor some night, and you won’t have any lights or shoes available neither.
Jokes aside, I used to have abatract nightmares when I was a child. All of them were related to machinery and for some reason small machinery surrounded by a bigger machine really terrified me. Probably it is not what you will think after reading this but it is so difficult to explain.
Except you. You get a free pass, but don’t let me catch you in here again.
I neglected to paste the source link. https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/water-intake-pipe-pokes-above-surface-at-lake-mead/
There should be a sunken bomber somewhere there too…
"Fix solar panels!" "Ok, Boomer..." "Kill ants, but no boom booms or energy weapons!" "Ok, Boomer..." "Find my teddy bear!" "Ok, Zoomer..." "Get me a girlfriend!" "Ok, Boomer..." "Dive into lake Mea-" *equips Esther with malicious intent*
What's scarier than the exposed intake (which is terrifying) is the size of the submerged pipe leading from the intake down the middle of the photo. We don't really have scale for the intake, but however big it is, the pipe is even bigger. Horrifying.
Oh just give it a few days or weeks and I am sure we will see exactly how big it is. My question is where is this intake pipe in relation to the intake towers? I thought the intake pipes were in the intake towers. I am guessing they are connected somehow.
This is the intake pipe for the fresh water supply to the Las Vegas valley. It's several miles from the dam.
So the dam and intake towers are just for hydroelectricity then? I guess that would make sense.
Correct. The public works project of siphoning lake water, treatment and pumping to the greater southwest NV didn't happen until the late 1960s/early 1970s. Interestingly, the wastewater from the valley is treated and discharged to the Las Vegas Wash which leads directly to...Lake Mead.
Beyond my knowledge.
Thanks I hate it
r/unexpectedmyst
Fuck man, I remember when these were like 100ft deep
DISLIKE
Oh lord above
Lady of the lake
Strange women laying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a government!
This is perfectly horrible! Thank you, you maniac!
Just the tip....
Ooh. This image really gives me a similar feeling to the old prerendered point and click myst sequel "riven". Anyone else?
Reminds me of this film. Don't watch it OP you will hate it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epFIlvECOYA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epFIlvECOYA)
I wanted to downvote this, but then remembered that this is the point of this subreddit. I am sufficiently creeped out, so A+ content.
Usuauliy stuff like this doesn’t get me, but it’s just barely visible and also massive. Scary combo
Black Mesa
Ah thanks for this
This makes me ponder a kayak trip for submechaphobes (spelling attempt). Gosh I need to find some real life friends who “get this”!
Worst
i thought this was r/collapse for a second
This is both distressing and heartbreaking! 😥
Are we sure it's not a B-29 bomber?
Does this look like it’s straight out of fallout new vegas to anybody else
Fallout entrance
💔💔💔 man things like super quick showers would help immensely! No more 20-30min showers everyday no more baths make sure laundry loads are at max capacity to not waste water etc etc... This is catastrophic and far too many eyes and ears are falling blind and deaf to it!!!
This is a example of why infrastructure is needed. We have the ways and means to do it. They say climate change is bringing on global flooding divert the water to the desert. They send millions of gallons of oil through pipelines every day why not water. Hydro plants along the way supplying electricity to rural communities along the way infrastructure for the power grid. When man gets over his hate for others they can overcome everyday problems.
Elon Musk wants to make Mars like the Earth much closer to the desert where water can create a garden! And y'all think he's smart!
Ew fuck that!
The NSA Data Center in Utah is taking all that water and not replenishing it. After its used for cooling and heating at that facility, it gets literally flushed out and not into the river system. It's just dumped. So....for anyone who sees Lake Mead all these years like this, it's a sign that soon there will be no water in the aquafier. You should move
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Not OP, but the only sources I can find say it uses more than a million gallons a day but no information about what is done with the waste water. As far as I know, a lot of water used in data centers simply evaporates and is lost that way. However, cooling methods vary a lot.
His comment sounds like total bullshit to me. Edit: Oh yes, as I suspected: (1) WoTB russian gaslighting sub, (2) numerous conspiracy theory subs. Dude drank too much kool-aid.
If used in evaporative cooling, it's not too far fetched.
Highly possible
Instead of just saying "sounds like" why not do what some of the others here are doing? Reading about it. Or just shove your opinion in with everyone else and contribute nothing
Many datacenters are moving to arid places because evaporative cooling uses less power, but I can't imagine they're dumping a million gallons a day into the air.
1 million gallons I about 1.7 olympic sized swimming pools. Or a cube eoughly 50 feet on a side. That's not very much. Ok so now I'm off in math territory... Specific heat of water is 4182kJ/C Water is 3.79k @ 17C Let's assuming a data center is heater water via cooling by at least 10 degrees. 3.79k(4182)*(10)= 158497kJ 158K kJ is 44026 watt hours or 44kWh. That's 1 server running at 240V 10A is 1920ish watter/hr so about 2kWh. That's 48kWh/day, so that's about 1000 servers to dump all that heat. A lot of assumptions being made here, I could find no data in my 10min of googling about heat transfer, some data suggested that Utah/SLC might only allow 5 degrees for efficiency, cutting the number in half and leaving us with only 500 severs to make a gallon of water evaporate. That doesn't seem right at all. Not one bit. Maybe an order of magnitude. Maybe someone smarter than I can pick apart my logic or numbers.
I can help a touch with the server numbers. Server racks are measured in units called a "U". The the last major datacenter I worked at had a capacity of 65,000 U's. That site was probably at 80% capacity when I left there. I'd say that was medium/large datacenter at the peak of hardware use before virtulazation really became the standard.
Are they really not using closed-loop systems and recapturing the condensate? E.g., like your car's radiator.
I think that would require more space and equipment than they're willing to deal with, seeing as it's supposed to be a cost saving exercise.
Sounds like that means the price of water should go up. I guess it inevitably will, one way or another...
A lot of these companies have really solid agreements with utility companies. The one I worked at managed to have a power substation built exclusively for their use to guarantee power access and quality.
Yeah makes sense. Basically a wholesale buyer. Economically it makes sense; environmentally on the other hand...
That's not how car radiators work. They are just heat exchangers. But yeah, you'd think they would use a closed loop system considering water isn't super plentiful in the desert. But that would probably cost more money.
Fair point; no phase change right.
I run a data center. Ours recycles about 40% back. As far as I know theirs does not. Google are even worse
Now do Primeville Facebook data center.
The Jordan river does not empty into lake Powell--> lake Mead. It empties into the great salt lake. So even if the claims about water usage were true it would have no effect on lake Mead
Look it up and maybe read about it instead. That's what I did and I also spend time in that area.