What makes the water use "excessive"?
In the case of the aquifer, it's clear. It's a finite resource that is going to be depleted sooner rather than later.
But that doesn't apply to diverting water from the Missouri River.
I guess the author just wants people to self-flagellate and repent their sins, rather than look for solutions?
The solution is obvious and inevitable.
These businesses are going to go under. You cannot run food manufacturing operations with the amount of water they have available. We will grow food someplace with more water.
The people who own those businesses will hold on until the bitter end. This is expected. They will try increasingly desperate measures to continue running their business, including but not limited to ecologically destructive practices. It won’t work. There’s no water.
All it says is that Apple vented some nasty stuff (what stuff?) into the author's apartment, and a mention of the EPA. Nothing else.