I really hope what they mean is clean water.
It can happen; there’s a paper mill by me that was actually an important part of the river cleanup process when the river was far worse than it is today. It takes water from the river, uses it for their needs, then treats it and returns it to the river far far cleaner than they took it out, which has been a net benefit for the entire downstream river ecosystem. That plan, and their follow-through, is the only reason that mill exists at all.
Thing is, where are they going to find this not-particularly-clean water to treat and return? Are they going to need all new infrastructure built to accommodate this?
And why is that cheaper/easier/whatever than just making a closed loop cooling system, which they could have done from the being…
Honestly I don’t know. It’s a yearly thing though in several places I know of. They have contests (usually through local tv stations) to guess the date it’ll fall through and stuff. People bet on it.
It may have to do with the fact that a lot of people go ice fishing so we regularly hear about big trucks falling through the ice, so it’s something to keep people aware of the danger…? Or rural folks might just find that fun, idk.