Q&A with Purdue prof Keith Cherkauer, director of the Indiana Water Resources Research Center, sizing up what a pair of studies say – and don’t say – about where Indiana should go on water management.
"If you put a chip manufacturing plant down in Lebanon, it doesn't need 50 million gallons of fresh water every day. They need some local storage, and they need to be able to reuse the water. When I mentioned that to IEDC, they were a little surprised that that was something that happened. … If you read the newspaper articles that have been published the last time Taiwan had a major drought, the government asked the semiconductor industry to not pull water from the reservoirs. And they said, Fine, we'll just use recycled water until we can pull fresh water." - Prof.
Thankyou Prof. for saying this. Chip plants already recycle water, why would the operations model be different in Indiana?
Indiana, if it cares about water, will implement REQUIREMENTS that industry re-use any water it is given, to the greatest extent possible. The Wabash area would have no problem with giving LEAP even a hundred million gallons of water ONCE, for them to use and re-use while they figure out how to conserve their own water.
Great reporting Dave. But I want to point out how people are ok with regulations, when it affects our water supply, but health and safety regulations are government intrusion on people’s rights when it comes to airborne viruses, etc.
We have regulations regarding traditional subsurface resources such as coal, oil, gas etc. and landowners receive compensation for their extraction. Why should water be any different?
Water moves, sometimes across borders. It can be converted to forage crops for the Arabian peninsula. Fisheries need it. Without it land can subside, dozens of meters in places. We need to drink it in pure form. A century of bungling out West shows that simple water-use schemes fail.
"If you put a chip manufacturing plant down in Lebanon, it doesn't need 50 million gallons of fresh water every day. They need some local storage, and they need to be able to reuse the water. When I mentioned that to IEDC, they were a little surprised that that was something that happened. … If you read the newspaper articles that have been published the last time Taiwan had a major drought, the government asked the semiconductor industry to not pull water from the reservoirs. And they said, Fine, we'll just use recycled water until we can pull fresh water." - Prof.
Thankyou Prof. for saying this. Chip plants already recycle water, why would the operations model be different in Indiana?
Indiana, if it cares about water, will implement REQUIREMENTS that industry re-use any water it is given, to the greatest extent possible. The Wabash area would have no problem with giving LEAP even a hundred million gallons of water ONCE, for them to use and re-use while they figure out how to conserve their own water.
Great reporting Dave. But I want to point out how people are ok with regulations, when it affects our water supply, but health and safety regulations are government intrusion on people’s rights when it comes to airborne viruses, etc.
Nice interview. Good information. Will the statehouse listen?
Thanks for the great follow up, Dave! Can’t begin to thank you enough for listening when I asked the questions initially. You rock!!
We have regulations regarding traditional subsurface resources such as coal, oil, gas etc. and landowners receive compensation for their extraction. Why should water be any different?
Water moves, sometimes across borders. It can be converted to forage crops for the Arabian peninsula. Fisheries need it. Without it land can subside, dozens of meters in places. We need to drink it in pure form. A century of bungling out West shows that simple water-use schemes fail.