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This year, Palo Alto wasted 140 million gallons of groundwater

Original post made by Resident with a dead lawn, Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Dec 14, 2016

Why save water when the Palo Alto is allowing this to occur?

This year 140 million gallons of groundwater were pumped and dumped for the construction of 8 residential basements. Each new basement dug in our area pumps and wastes between 10 – 30 million gallons of groundwater.

There are alternative ways of building basements that waste much less water.


Please help save our groundwater tonite at 6:00

Palo Alto’s Policy and Services Committee will vote on the 2017 dewatering regulations

TONIGHT, December 14th
6:00 PM

City Hall, Community Room
250 Hamilton Avenue
Palo Alto, 94301


For more information go to: Web Link

Contact us at info@savepaloaltosgroundwater.org

Comments (8)

9 people like this
Posted by Marc
a resident of Midtown
on Dec 14, 2016 at 1:08 pm

Please don't support this mis-guided attempt at mis-leading citizens.

None of the ground water is being "wasted". None of it is drinking water.

/marc

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14 people like this
Posted by Save Palo Alto's Groundwater
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on Dec 14, 2016 at 2:08 pm

Does only potable water have value?
Is the water that SCVWD buys from the State Water Project potable?
Is the wastewater from whcih San Jose's Purified" water, which is potable made potable?
Is it necessary to use potable water for irrigation?
Do you prefer Perrier to flush toilets.

Whether or not the water is potable is irrelevant. The water is both used and usable for beneficial purposes.

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9 people like this
Posted by Resident
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Dec 14, 2016 at 3:16 pm

It isn't only dewatering for basements etc. that is wasted. I have seen mains flushing on several streets over the past couple of days. All that water is also going down the drain. It is disgusting to me that this water is wasted when we are being told not to flush our toilets and let our lawns go brown. I hate yellow toilets and brown lawns and would gladly use non-potable water for each.

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9 people like this
Posted by Plane Speaker
a resident of Crescent Park
on Dec 14, 2016 at 7:22 pm

Misguided ... I agree with that description. Basement dewatering is
not lowing the groundwater any, so why do you complain? The water
is not being used for anything else, so it is not missed or a problem,
yet some people just have it in their heads this is the major issue of
Palo Alto ..... hardly.

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Posted by HUTCH 7.62
a resident of Portola Valley

on Dec 14, 2016 at 8:54 pm


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1 person likes this
Posted by Curmudgeon
a resident of Downtown North
on Dec 14, 2016 at 9:31 pm

"Basement dewatering is not lowing the groundwater any..."

Then there's no point doing it, is there? Isn't the purpose of dewatering to lower the local groundwater level so they can dig and finish a basement?

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2 people like this
Posted by Plane Speaker
a resident of Crescent Park
on Dec 15, 2016 at 1:23 pm

> Then there's no point doing it, is there?

Ho, ho, ho, the very definition of curmudgeonly.

Of course there is a point in doing it to build a basement in a local area where
groundwater intrudes ... BECAUSE THERE IS SO MUCH OF IT! I'm thinking
this is a scheme by the real estate industry to limit what people can do with
their own property so in order to upgrade they have to spend more and more
money - all fees to their industry.

I've seen no scientific evidence, certainly not enough to drive a law or regulation
about this to do what they are recommending doing in the other article about
this? The idea of limiting the work time makes sense to me, but keeping people
from building in Palo Alto where space is at a premium is just evil.

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2 people like this
Posted by Obvious
a resident of Community Center
on Dec 15, 2016 at 9:22 pm

Question asked above: "Does only potable water have value?"


Yes. Non-potable water is nearly worthless. We have almost infinite water in the ocean. The only difference is purity, delivery, and reliability.

Groundwater is almost as low value. It is going to the bay anyhow, and the amount pumped by basements is insignificant. There are 1500' of water below us, and pumping groundwater doesn't affect the water table by less than 1"

1 inch. For all projects in town.

insignificant.

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