General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA example of why suggestions to pump water to California from across the Rockies are unrealistic
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/navajo-generating-station-powers-and-paralyzes-the-western-u-s/This achievement in moving water, however, is gained at an enormous cost. Every hour the Navajos generators spin, the plant spews more climate-warming gases into the atmosphere than almost any other single facility in the United States. Alone, it accounts for 29 percent of Arizonas emissions from energy generation. The Navajo stations infernos gobble 15 tons of coal each minute, 24 hours each day, every day.
At sunrise, a reddish-brown snake slithers across the sky as the burned coal sends out plumes of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, lead and other metals. That malignant plumecontaining 16 million tons of carbon dioxide every yearcontributes to causing the very overheated weather, drought and dwindling flows of water the plants power is intended to relieve.
And that's just ONE power plant, moving a tiny fraction of the water California needs, only 336 miles.
NutmegYankee
(16,207 posts)Alas, few Americans are trained in those subjects.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)Use the ocean....or maybe don't try to farm a desert? There isn't enough water on this side of the Rockies to water a fucking desert ffs.. Is anyone actually talking about such idiocy?
sdfernando
(4,962 posts)well, metaphorically my back yard. In Carlsbad CA in north San Diego County and old power station is being converted and reconstructed as a desalinization plant. I believe it should be up and running by next year with the ability to provide most of the area's drinking water.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)On Pendleton. Most of the population of So.Cal. are convinced it is a tropical paradise...any marine who has spent any time on the outback at Pendleton or 29 palms knows it is all just a facade for a desert.
ellisonz
(27,711 posts)And we're feeding a substantial portion of the country.
http://ajed.assembly.ca.gov/sites/ajed.assembly.ca.gov/files/Fast%20Facts%20on%20California's%20Agricultural%20Economy.pdf
pipoman
(16,038 posts)Meant to be..the substantial portion of the country are the ridiculous amount of people living in a dessert wanting it to be a tropical oasis...go spend some time at the museum of natural history in Balboa Park...there is an exhibit there showing a time lapse of Balboa Park for like 30 million years....it is a desert for 95% of the 30 million...California and Arizona will not steal water from anywhere else...it's expensive to desalinate? Move out of the fucking desert...
ellisonz
(27,711 posts)Stardust
(3,894 posts)good idea to me, but evidently the experts did not agree.
In the meantime, I'll continue to cut back on water usage as best I can.
Glassunion
(10,201 posts)Stardust
(3,894 posts)JHB
(37,166 posts)Maybe it wasn't urgent enough at the time 80s?).
You did not misremember.
Bigmack
(8,020 posts)(Bear in mind, the people in the NW would fight it tooth and nail.)
What are the engineering problems with that?
Not over the Siskiyous, of course, but nearer the coast.
IDemo
(16,926 posts)The Snake and Columbia aren't available for export, sorry.
SEATTLE Gov. Jay Inslee declared a statewide drought emergency for Washington on Friday, with mountain snowpack at 16 percent of average and water levels in rivers and streams drying to a trickle not seen since the 1950s. He said that residents should also be prepared for an early and active fire season that could reach higher elevations in the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges, where many spots are already completely clear of snow.
Were seeing things happen at this time of year we just have never seen before, Mr. Inslee said in a news conference.
Snobblevitch
(1,958 posts)can move enough water to substantially improve California's problem with a lack of water.
nilesobek
(1,423 posts)I have 4 daughters in N. California and they have been on strict water rationing for a while now. The Russian river used to flood almost every year ten years ago.
There are a lot of landscape contractors moving to Idaho also with big money and big timing it. In Idaho, where the mega lawn is a reality, and water resources seem unlimited. That's the industry I work in as a laborer and I can tell you that enormous quantities of water are necessary to keep giant lawns green no matter how much fertilizer they use.
The idea of tapping the Snake river at Twin Falls has been floating around since the 1970s but was met with fierce resistance from the orchard farmers down there. California really doesn't have any good options except for rain and snow in the winter.
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)would require about a dozen new (probably nuclear) power plants, just to power the pumps (some of that energy can be gotten back from hydropower, but not as much as you have to put in). It's simply not feasible.
eppur_se_muova
(36,317 posts)https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0444F9186975498D
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118279/
Although nearly 30 years old, this analysis and warning is even more timely today.
CK_John
(10,005 posts)or a road at the same time as an aquifer.