Scientists, Geologists, and/or Climatologists; would this work?

[hopewrites]

I was dreaming and this was one of the features of the world I was dreaming in. Curious if it would help as much as the people of that dream-reality believed it would.

Large industrial greenhouses as well as major urban centers were equipped with reverse wells. The dehumidifires in greenhouses drained into a reverse well that filtered water back down into the aquifer. (Now that I'm awake I assume the floor drains would as well, but they didn't feature in the dream.)

In large urban areas, where paving coverage prevents proper drainage to the aquifer, rather than channeling it down to streams and rivers, and eventually into the ocean, large rain catches are set up over the city, serving the duel purpose of climate control (no more getting rained on while waiting for the bus, or walking to work) and by filtering the catch down a reverse well, serves the city as a means of refilling its water supply.

The world consequences were that the contents of the continents aquifers were not added to the oceans, thus lowering them a global 1/2inch. The lowered oceans did not eat at their polar ice caps, (although a few large food production companies did take a few thousand tons of polar ice to start up their dessert greenhouses. Complete with manufactured aquifer.) also working to maintain a lowered global ocean level. Fresh water supplies were not an issue, as anywhere they became one, philanthropic organizations descend all set to install whatever reclamation equipment was needed.

The problem they faced in my dream was that there were those who were all set to install artificial water cycles in less habitable climates, thus altering the face of the world to be ALL green. ALL growing. Protesters against the taraforming of Earth camped in peace circles in the parking lots of the companies attempting climate reclamation projects, and led boycotts of their products. However, they were too few to forward their cause of planetary stasis, and the CRPs went forward.


Not really a utopian idea, nor so much a post-apocalyptic one.

What I'm curious about is would a reverse well even work. I assume if you can drill a hole down to an aquifer to extract its contents, you could also drill a hole to refill it. The system had filtration layers, not poring runoff straight back into the drinking supply... but would those layers need to be accessed? Cleaned? Awake I assume that the layers were constructed to simulate as close as possible the filtration layers naturally occurring on natural water paths to the aquifer. What would the cost of creating such a system be? I must assume that it's cost prohibitive as no one's done it. (Unless they have, and I never heard about it.)

 

[J Riff]

No idea. Peat moss filters. Some kind of natural layer of something, would still need cleaning? Lowering the ocean a half-inch is a lot of water.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

you could also drill a hole to refill it

Fracking?

 

[chrispenycate]

Take a huge amount of energy to condense that much water - probably more than a desalination plant for the same amount of fresh water. But filters wouldn't need cleaning all that often, as the water is effectively distilled. But you wouldn't have enough undreground storage capacity to store more than a centimetre of ocean depth, so you'll have to start by digging subterranean holes.

 

[J5V]

1. It probably wouldn't work. I assume an aquifer is a large collection of water (a layer between rocks) that have already been purified. The water trickles through many layers from the surface, and is filtered in the process. I would expect that pumping into the aquifer would pollute it, and the water would have nowhere to go; it wouldn't go back up through the filters to the surface, ready for use.

However, there's nothing stopping you inventing a process that would work in the context of your story: a reason why it would work there, which is different from our real world.


2. Beware dreams. I've tried writing a few up as stories, but they don't work well without lots of explaining. The symbols of a dream are fairly random, and we do our best to give meaning to the symbols in combination, just like we might use story dice. Just because the symbols appear together, we assume they have a deep meaning, and we try to create something from that meaning. However, if you give those symbols to someone else, they likely won't work, because they need your brain to make sense of them. You need to normalize the experience, so everyone can understand it. This means you have to re-write it, analyse why its symbols have meaning, and explain that meaning, giving lots of background context, until most readers can relate to it.

For example, a story about trying to seek shelter to escape the light of the red sun might carry no meaning for the average reader. As a writer, you might think it induces fear, because when you remember the dream, you remember the associated fear, and why it's important to keep out of the red sunlight. But if you don't explain this 'private' connection you have, between the red sun and the fear, your readers won't understand it. Even telling the reader that "I fear it" won't be enough. You'd have to explain why it induced fear, what the consequences are (preferably by example, rather than by anecdotal recollection) and not assume that all readers will also feel fear at the mention of a red sun. It's about creating the common experience, filling in the gaps between their understanding and yours.

 

[hopewrites]

No the overarching theme of the dream was to do with my personal health. I have a dream from about 6yrs ago that I've back-burner-ed till I can get a grip on how to write the MC. Not anxious to try and do a full write up based on another dream till I can get that one.

Just thought this idea had potential, and was sure there were aspects of it I hadn't thought of yet, that may or may not make it feasible.

I have to agree with Chris. The longer I'm awake the more I think, "gosh. There won't be as much going back into the aquifer as is coming out o f it."
I do remember watching something on the discovery channel years and years ago about these holes in the earth, old aquifers that have been pumped dry. Thinking about how long humans have been pulling water up out of the earth, and sending it to the ocean when done rather than filtering it back down to the tapped source... I imagine that there is a substantial quantity of ground water in the ocean.
Back when I was in 8th grade (age 12-13) my science teacher had us think up ways to solve water shortages. At the time I came up with a magical chemical that purified toilet water... somehow I think the reverse well is only slightly better as ideas go.


Thanks for all the replies! If anyone else has a science question, feel free to grab this thread to ask.

 

[Wiglaf]

Orange County, California pumps sewage treated to drinking water quality into its aquifers at a point remote from the pumps out of the aquifer. It takes several decades for the water to make it from one end to the other.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Tis a complex issue...

Some aquifers are naturally replenished by water that seeps through the ground. Installing dehumidifiers to extract lots of water from the air could hamper such natural and free processes that in the large part generate a good source of fresh water in these aquifers (and also hamper things like good weather for plants and ducks, like a bit of rain?!?!? ).

On the other hand some aquifers are full of fossil water that are not replenished - usually because they are now in regions of the world where the ground is no longer soaked by rain - Australia, the Sahara etc...

However I've heard of some water authorities (Texas or New Mexico, I seem to remember) who when they have a surplus of water might store it in their underground aquifers rather than reservoirs. Reservoirs are cheaper, potentially a source of hydroelectricity/energy storage and can be used by people for all sorts of other purposes - fishing and water sports fun for example - but if you are in a very dry region, storing water in an aquifer will stop all your water being evaporated away by just leaving it lying about on the surface.

As for using your scheme to reduce the sea level...I ain't done the math, but I think @chrispenycate is probably correct. The biggest impact on sea level is the amount of ice on the planet - i.e. the difference between an ice age and not an ice age is hundreds of metres of sea change at least - and (again I ain't done the math, but) it might be more cost effective in terms of energy to try and keep water locked up as ice, rather than physically trying to move water underground.

I say might, as we really don't know how easy it is to deliberately try and control the earth's thermostat.

Anyway my instant 2 pence on your dream .

 

[tinkerdan]

You have complex dreams. Or at least a complex way of filtering them into reality. I manage to lose most of the dream in the first fog of reality as I wake. I've thought about keeping a notebook handy, but I've only just recently gotten back into the habit of making the bed in the morning and finding something else to do would possibly subvert that which I've reacquired. Then some one would peek in and say, 'You haven't made the bed yet.'

I'd peer up with my blackened face and hands and mumble, " So much ink, so many words."

I'm not a scientist, so I can't help you with your reverse aquifer; but the idea is intriguing. Seems I once saw something about building a home that had a complex system under and around it to filter and reuse waste water. It does seem like a sound idea to start putting back that which we've taken. One wonders about returning all that oil-maybe in the form of used motor oil.

 

[Venusian Broon]

One wonders about returning all that oil-maybe in the form of used motor oil.

We are slowly - usually in the form of plastic into land fills - in fact with the shear amount of Lego that is lying about, there should be a toy brick layer in Earth's geology. I'm sure with enough pressure squeezed under a few million years of rock formation, they'll revert back to oil

 

[hopewrites]

Oil is made out of compressed organic* matter right?

So landfills? The ones that commercial food industries use sooner than others?



*the "it used to be alive" definition of 'Organic'

 

[tinkerdan]

Yes oil comes from the dinosaurs who had it running in their veins. They lived a high octane life until that great cataclysm caused by the over use of tanning beds that increase the ozone, triggering global freezing.