Wouldn't the Columbia make more sense than the Mississippi? It has about half the discharge of the Mississippi, but is closer.
Time for Army Corps of Engineers to investigate moving water West?
131–140 of 347 posts
Re: Time for Army Corps of Engineers to investigate moving water West?
#132What are the groundwater resources like in the areas that are otherwise proposed for the water to be delivered to? Since we’re talking nation-scale projects here, then I’m talking about at depths from 1km to 3km.
https://www.thedriller.com/articles/89083-oregon-irrigation-...
Re: Time for Army Corps of Engineers to investigate moving water West?
#133I understand that this is mostly for agriculture, but maybe let's stop building and expanding big cities in the desert. Golf courses in Phoenix, for example, seem like an irresponsible use of water.
Counterpoint: I grew up in the Midwest along the Kankakee river, and most infrastructure is built for flooding, as it can happen year round. Fresh water is not only abundant, there is often too much, and flooded fields and towns are a real problem. I am all for finding ways to move it west where people say they need it and are willing to pay a premium. Cities in the deserts of earth are more feasible than ever with i…
The great lakes watershed can't be touched. In any case, the solution to floods in a flood plain is to not live in a flood plain or build elevated structures.
Re: Time for Army Corps of Engineers to investigate moving water West?
#134Doesn’t solve the problem, it just pushes it a bit further down the road. It’s better to accept that the land can’t support the current or projected population and start to right size and reexamine land use. With any luck the trend will reverse in a century or two.
Re: Time for Army Corps of Engineers to investigate moving water West?
#135Re: Time for Army Corps of Engineers to investigate moving water West?
#136Before looking at the water source, wouldn't doing the bare minimum to control the water sinks would be in order?
I mean, we have harder regulations on water useage in the alps, and this is a water rich area where only 3% of the a available water is used. The truth is that the water a land will provide is limited. And of course you could expand this water by also taking the water from another land, but maybe pitting a little effort into not wasting water for unnecessary stuff would already do wonders?
Re: Time for Army Corps of Engineers to investigate moving water West?
#137One tricky thing is the Mississippi has water, but the majority comes from the Ohio, nowhere near the Colorado. This is a diagram for capacity, not volume, but you get the idea.
https://ian.umces.edu/media-library/flow-capacity-for-the-mi...
Re: Time for Army Corps of Engineers to investigate moving water West?
#138As someone who moved to LA in the early 70s, and left LA in the late 80s, and spent some time to visit Palm Springs, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, I can say with full confidence that anyone with a lick of sense knew there was not enough water to sustain that growth that started back then, but that didn't stop anyone from building or buying those homes. They all knew it, but didn't care. It was, and still is, plain old stup…
> And there is still a lot of industry that use and dumped used water into it, and farms that have runoff of pesticides all along it and it's tributaries. Sounds like an opportunity to clean the water and bill the polluters for the cost. If only…
It's not near as polluted as it was in the `40s-`70s but it's still polluted and will always be muddy.
I get the feeling the person who wrote that has never actually seen the Mississippi River. It's far from a clear mountain stream you'd walk up to and sip water from. It's not something you'd even want to swim in on a hot day.
Re: Time for Army Corps of Engineers to investigate moving water West?
#139Most water use is for agriculture. Most agricultural water use is for meat. Beef is by far the least efficient way to turn water (and other stuff) into protein. I propose we tax meat nationwide according to its water use, instead of dreaming up unrealistic and unnecessary megaprojects.
My understanding is that agricultural water use in CA is dominated by growing crops, not feeding cows.
Re: Time for Army Corps of Engineers to investigate moving water West?
#140Ok so similar scale pipeline as Libya’s Great Man-Made River
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man-Made_River
except with narrower pipes and no wells, but adding a need for pumping stations.