groundwater

[thunder]

At a surten time, i always lack off ground water, same amount off pumps, but suddenly they suck up all the water and the ground water isnt refilled with rain, this is a major problem. why all go well and then suddenly without making any changes the ground water is sucked up dry? this must be adressed as ground water must be refilled by rain, but its not doing that! plz fix that ground water as i dont can prduce enoupg water from sea water to water all my farms, i always get a game killer suddenly with that ground water.

[Billy_Bligh]

Groundwater is a resource that can run out. You're extracting water faster than it refills with rain. Probably with too many water pumps. You need to increase seawater desalinisation. It's the only way to keep up with water demand - it's not a bug.

[manfred.stabentheiner]

its not an bug its an your proplem
you protuct to low of the resource you need

[thunder]

ye i deconstructed some off tyhe pumps, i increased my desalination factory but i need a lot off water lol, but i saw that the pumps are left that i got are good, the groundwater is slowly refilling but desalination is a big construction as i still dont have enouph lol but i am almost there lol.
I thought it was a bug as i had no problems in the beginning, but then suddenly no more groundwater, but ok i also take high presure and make water off it in my cooling towers, building a reserve water tank ;)

[JuggernautOfWar]

Isn't there also a water well on the world map you can import from with a cargo ship? Might be a good source of water for you while you get your desalination up to full production.

[SpeedDaemon]

It always seems to me that rain tapers off a bit as the game goes on, I assume to force you into other water-generation tech.

My normal farms always tend to be fine for a few years, then start complaining about lack of water and then lose crops if I don't upgrade them and start irrigation.

[Tregon]

Originally posted by thunder:

ye i deconstructed some off tyhe pumps, i increased my desalination factory but i need a lot off water lol, but i saw that the pumps are left that i got are good, the groundwater is slowly refilling but desalination is a big construction as i still dont have enouph lol but i am almost there lol.
I thought it was a bug as i had no problems in the beginning, but then suddenly no more groundwater, but ok i also take high presure and make water off it in my cooling towers, building a reserve water tank ;)

Of course no problems at start. You start with full aquifiers, but if your pumping exceeds replenishment rate, eventually aquifiers will run dry.

On top of desalination, pay attention to other water sources. Oil refinement produces sour water that can be cleaned, wastewater treatment handles most of settlement water needs.

One thing I would not use is anything below high steam in desalination. Low and depleted steam are better sent to cooling towers and independent high steam boilers to desalination for better output.

[Kaery]

In my experience, rain isn't slacking off, but instead your consumption rapidly outpaces what rain can provide.

OP, if you mean that you are making high pressure steam for the sole use of putting it through a cooling tower, that's a loss of water right there. You never gets as much water from the steam as you put into it. Small cooling tower is actually a 50% loss.

Unless you use a thermal desalinator, then it works out.

[Kaery]

Originally posted by Tregon:

One thing I would not use is anything below high steam in desalination. Low and depleted steam are better sent to cooling towers and independent high steam boilers to desalination for better output.

I've never understood this. Yes, depleted steam desalination is slow, and both give you less water per recipe than the high steam one. But both still turn a profit, while a cooling tower always operates with a loss.

I use a small plant of eight desalinators to use part of my depleted steam (the overflow still goes to cooling towers) to make water. This allows the water tank that supplies my powerplant to slowly fill without any additional water supply.

[Tregon]

Originally posted by Kaery:

Originally posted by Tregon:

One thing I would not use is anything below high steam in desalination. Low and depleted steam are better sent to cooling towers and independent high steam boilers to desalination for better output.

I've never understood this. Yes, depleted steam desalination is slow, and both give you less water per recipe than the high steam one. But both still turn a profit, while a cooling tower always operates with a loss.

I use a small plant of eight desalinators to use part of my depleted steam (the overflow still goes to cooling towers) to make water. This allows the water tank that supplies my powerplant to slowly fill without any additional water supply.

It turns water profit, but cooling towers are power and maintenance free.

[SpeedDaemon]

Originally posted by Kaery:

In my experience, rain isn't slacking off, but instead your consumption rapidly outpaces what rain can provide.

The reason I used the example of un-irrigated farms is because they should provide some data in isolation. Same T1 farm, same crops: they're fine for the first few years, then crops start drying out.

Either the rain reduces over time, or we get "bonus" rain at the beginning of the game to help get started, and that bonus causes people to over-build out of a false sense of security.

[thunder]

Originally posted by Kaery:

In my experience, rain isn't slacking off, but instead your consumption rapidly outpaces what rain can provide.

OP, if you mean that you are making high pressure steam for the sole use of putting it through a cooling tower, that's a loss of water right there. You never gets as much water from the steam as you put into it. Small cooling tower is actually a 50% loss.

Unless you use a thermal desalinator, then it works out.

no i use steam from my electric plant, the steam that comes out instead off burning it into the air i reroutte them to some cooling towers, i make enouph steam for both ;) dont know if i am doing the right thing but it works for now lol

[thunder]

Originally posted by Kaery:

In my experience, rain isn't slacking off, but instead your consumption rapidly outpaces what rain can provide.

OP, if you mean that you are making high pressure steam for the sole use of putting it through a cooling tower, that's a loss of water right there. You never gets as much water from the steam as you put into it. Small cooling tower is actually a 50% loss.

Unless you use a thermal desalinator, then it works out.

ye i did put to much pumps but now i am close to having enouph water for my farms. I deconstructed many pumps and now those who are still there are doing well, my ground water is going up again ;) it was my bad lol

[pariah]

Originally posted by thunder:

no i use steam from my electric plant, the steam that comes out instead off burning it into the air i reroutte them to some cooling towers, i make enouph steam for both ;) dont know if i am doing the right thing but it works for now lol

You're doing the right thing. Cooling towers (especially coupled with a priority on pipe balancers) let you take pressure off your water supply which is probably what you need, especially early game when running more desalinators would be a struggle and you might not have better pipes/extra logistics to get more water there anyway.
Just to be clear, if you haven't unlocked low-pressure turbines yet, when you do you'll want to run the steam (low) through those before finally sending the steam (depleted) into a cooling tower to make the most of it.

If you're right next to the ocean and can afford it, desalinating with used-up steam is completely fine if you need the water more than you need the power/cost (especially if that means you're similarly reducing the burden on other parts of your water supply in areas that are more remote). Even a groundwater pump or two is situationally okay, even though they're unreliable and mostly an early-game thing, if they're running something intermittent or the perfect thing to give a reservoir time to fill up between droughts. The game is full of decisions like that, just study the recipe book and don't take anyone else's rules of thumb too seriously. But cooling towers are basically always a good idea~

[Kaery]

Originally posted by thunder:

no i use steam from my electric plant, the steam that comes out instead off burning it into the air i reroutte them to some cooling towers, i make enouph steam for both ;) dont know if i am doing the right thing but it works for now lol

Just be aware to use the used steam, not fresh. If high pressure steam is backfilling because the turbine waits for power to be needed, that's no trouble because that boiler stopping for a bit actually saves you water. A stopped boiler doesn't use water. But if you divert the backfilled steam to cooling towers, you are making high steam to feed cooling towers, which loses you water and fuel.

So yes, the steam that's been through the turbine, feel free using that. It's already done some work for you. But 'fresh' steam is a bad idea.

[Wanderer]

While the primary concern was addressed here, the original issue wasn't.

Aquifers regenerate independently. At Sailor you can use roughly 3-3.5 groundwater wells full tilt, Captain 2.5, Admiral 2... PER aquifer (ignoring crater) before you start having water loss. Yes it depends on seasonal rain, it's an average from my multiple playthroughs.

If you need more groundwater before you switch to desalination outright, you can start piping from the other aquifers on the map. This can be a permanent solution but you'll be constantly jiggling your piping around as you terraform, so, YMMV. However, your average map has at least 4 aquifers, so it's an option if you've got the construction materials to spare, but not the workers/electric/coal. At least you can reclaim the majority of the construction parts later.