Posted on 04/04/2007 8:38:34 AM PDT by grundle
A Western drought that began in 1999 has continued after the respite of a couple of wet years that now feel like a cruel tease. But this time people in the driest states are not just scanning the skies and hoping for rescue.
Some $2.5 billion in water projects are planned or under way in four states, the biggest expansion in the West’s quest for water in decades. Among them is a proposed 280-mile pipeline that would direct water to Las Vegas from northern Nevada. A proposed reservoir just north of the California-Mexico border would correct an inefficient water delivery system that allows excess water to pass to Mexico.
In Yuma, Ariz., federal officials have restarted an idled desalination plant, long seen as a white elephant from a bygone era, partly in the hope of purifying salty underground water for neighboring towns.
In Yuma, near the Arizona border with Mexico, officials have pinned hopes on a desalination plant built 15 years ago. The plan then had been to treat salty runoff from farms before it made its way into Colorado River headed to Mexico, thus meeting the terms of an old water treaty.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It’s about time they did this. Long overdue, IMO.
They have noted how dry they are. They have also noted the price of gasoline. They have also noted how close they are to capacity in their power grid. Self-imposed constraints seem to be invisible to them.
A more efficient method of delivering wet backs.
Do the Mexicans think it's "excess".
(Lake Meade in August sure looks delicious, though.)
The Inner tube business might pick up.
The misinformation in this paragraph alone makes the article suspect, there is more, which I won't go in to.
The water being desalinated is NOT runoff from farms, there is little to no runoff from the farms. The water being desalinated is pumped from the ground, to lower ground water levels in the Colorado River Valley.
YOU LIVE IN A DESERT! YOU LIVE IN A F***ING DESERT! NOTHING GROWS OUT HERE! NOTHING'S GONNA GROW OUT HERE! YOU SEE THIS? HUH? THIS IS SAND. KNOW WHAT IT'S GONNA BE HERE A HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW? IT'S GONNA BE SAND! YOU LIVE IN A F***ING DESERT! GET YOUR STUFF, GET YOUR SH*T, WE'LL MAKE ONE TRIP, WE'LL TAKE YOU TO WHERE THE FOOD IS!
You beat me to it. He was the first thing that popped in my mind when I read this. Sam Kinison: RIP.
Another misleading story, this is about stealing farmers water in northern Nevada, to aide in Harry Reeds real estate developments in the south.
Well, until water rates rise 400%, desalination makes no sense.
Isn’t the obvious answer to build more reservoirs to catch runoff water?
I’m under the impression that “desertification” feeds off of itself, with dry conditions being exacerbated by a lack of condensation. Large scale pumping of desalinated water into a region, thereby reversing excessively dry conditions on the ground, should conversely lead to more rain, eventually, if this is true. I think of Israel, making the desert bloom, and tend to believe that might actually be the case.
Stupid stupid stupid. All you have to do is let everyone bid for the water. Farmers, cities etc. Uneconomic farming (that exists only because of water subsidies) will transfer to better crops (growing rice in calif is stupid eg). Instead, you set up another layer of government welfare that makes the farmers dependent on the government.
The obvious answer is to advise people not to live in deserts.
imho the cost of water desalination will drop 500% in the next 7 years. Maybe more.
Well, that will be about 2 years too late!
Doh! Still cant believe they havent issued conservation notices yet in So Cal.
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