Twenty years ago, Dayton, Ohio decided to install five water fountains along the Great Miami River. The fountains used river water. But the system soon ran into trouble because the filters got clogged all the time. So they connected the fountains to wells that extract water from the underground aquifer, the same one that supplies drinking water to the city. So today the fountains are dumping good, potable drinking water - that’s been underground for millions of years - into the river.
And these are not small fountains. They shoot water 200 feet high and 400 feet horizontally.
Hey, look, some buildings in Dayton are already pumping out ground water to keep basements from flooding, so what’s the big deal?
Not only do the fountains not impact the aquifer, they’re actually good for the aquifer.
Even if all three of the above are true (and I’m skeptical 1) and 3) are true), at the very least it seems like an egregious display of braggadocio & waste, especially when other parts of the country are having water shortages.
Finally I should add that the fountains do not run all the time, or even most of the time:
The fountains operate for 10-minute intervals at the top of the hour, Mon.-Fri., 6:55 AM-9:55 PM and weekends 10:55 AM-9:55 PM Memorial Day through Labor Day; in 2021, the fountains will run through September 26.
Dayton’s water supply is fed by the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer, which is constantly saturated and recharged by regular flow from streams and rivers. As a California resident I’m pretty horrified at the way the Southwest wastes precious water on golf courses and outdoor pools, particularly in the drought conditions we are currently facing, and even more concerned about the invisible wastage of water for agricultural and industrial uses in growing unsustainable crops and manufacturing ‘cheap’ goods, but discharging aquifer water back into the river in a way that doesn’t deplete the aquifer doesn’t really hit any threshold of concern. If I were a Dayton resident, I think I’d reserve my outrage for something more along the lines of the systemic practice of redlining or being a regional epicenter for the opioid crisis.
I’ve got decorative fountains running at times around my home and property. I also don’t turn my tap off when I brush my teeth. And sometimes I indulge in long showers.
I am on the western shore of Lake Michigan, feet away from the water. The damn lake is overfull at present. I have streams and springs coming out of the lake bluff just west of my house and flowing into the lake mere yards north and south of my place.
All my water in my house is pumped up from the aquifer that feeds those springs and streams. If I don’t pump it up that same water just flows into Lake Michigan at a faster rate out of those same springs. My not using fountains or turning my tap off when I brush my teeth saves no water at all, it just costs me a few pennies to pump up a bit more water into the house.
These are not assumptions on my part, it’s been verified by a groundwater specialist at the U of Wisconsin College of Natural Resources Center for Watershed Science.
I am not going to fail to use and enjoy an abundant natural resource in my area because others lack such abundance in theirs. My use of it does not increase their lack. I don’t expect Coloradans to stop climbing mountains because I lack them here.
If we get major wildfires out here in the West again this summer (very likely), I’m going to be pretty cross if you don’t agree to shroud your house in a continuous pall of wood smoke for months in sympathy .
Suffering builds character! Bad character, granted. But character all the same!
What do you base your skepticism of point 1 on? Plenty of aquifers are replenishing as fast as water is being drawn. Why do you think they’re lying about this being one of them?
Is the amount of water significant compared to the water use of Dayton?
Are you opposed to all art and entertainment, or just those using water?
If this aquifer is not decreasing in volume, and this isn’t a massive part of Dayton’s parks and rec. budget, I don’t see a problem.
Some aquifers are “fossil water”. Some are not. There’s no reason why appropriate use of a fossil aquifer shouldn’t be different from appropriate use of a living aquifer.
I’m reminded of how Americans used to tell their kids, “Finish your food, there are starving kids in China.” As if, you know, whether American kids finished or didn’t finish their food would somehow put food into the mouths of starving kids 10,000 kilometers away.
Of course. Also I’m adding an industrial strength humidifier, a heater and breeding hummingbird-sized mosquitoes for release to try and replicate a sweltering high summer. All must suffer alike!
Well, even in drought-stricken California’s central coast, they still manage to justify filling the pools at Hearst Castle. I am going to save my outrage, however, for the farmers who want the state and nation to pay for them to have cheap water to grow highly profitable export crops in a desert - socializing the cost and risk while privatizing the profit and benefit.
As for the Dayton thing, as mentioned, if there is a water shortage in the area, then yes there should be some outrage, but it sounds like that is not the case.
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