Posted on 10/10/2009 10:37:33 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Environmentalists concerned about the threat to its unique eco-system.
Water levels in the lowest and saltiest body of water on the planet are falling by more than four feet a year, giving rise to quips that the Dead Sea is dying.
The government in Amman has said it is planning to extract more than 10 billion cubic feet a year from the Red Sea 110 miles to the south, feed most of it into a desalination plant to create drinking water, and send the salty waste-water left over to the Dead Sea by tunnel.
Similar plans are already the subject of a two-year feasibility study agreed by the Jordanians, Israelis and Palestinians in a rare example of cross-border Middle East co-operation.
But the Jordanians have decided they cannot wait any longer. "Jordan will start with the first phase with the help of donor countries and private investors," its minister for water, General Maysoun Zu'bi, said this week.
But environmentalists said the two years allotted to the feasibility study were already too short for a proper assessment of the risks posed to the Dead Sea's unique ecology.
Environmentalists are concerned that the mixing of two different types of salt-water might have serious ecological consequences, including a build-up of algae.
There are allied plans to build up the Dead Sea's roads and hotels for tourism. There are also fears that increased salinity in the Red Sea might damage fish and coral.
"We know the plan's attractive to the Jordanian government because it will bring so much money circulating in the economy," said Munqeth Mehyar, director of Friends of the Earth in the Jordanian capital, Amman. "But the price is too high."
The study for the so-called "Red-Dead Water Conveyance Project", funded by seven donor nations and commissioned by the
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The Dead Sea is dying?
Nothing can live in that water, can it?
I think only bacteria, and unicellular organisms can live in it.
Now, I'm going to gouge out my eyes.
/johnny
Which one is Helen Thomas?
/johnny
/johnny
“Better Dead than Red” out of the Jordanians?
Wonder how rapid the influx of water might be. That could prompt geological concerns.
The cause of the depletion of the Dead Sea is the diversion of water upstream in the Jordan River for irrigation.
If they took the tailwater from the irrigation projects and put it into the Dead Sea, it would likely be as saline as anything they’re going to get from a de-sal plant. One of the things common to deserts is a high salt content of the soils; irrigate it enough to push the salts down below the root zone and any runoff from irrigation through drain tile is salty as all getout.
A great example is seen here in the US in the Imperial Valley, CA and downstream at the Salton Sea.
Check out the mountain in the background. You can count at least six or more beach lines. (Horizontal lines in the side of the mountain caused by wave action. This tells you that the Dead Sea had various periods of depth over time.)
The Salton Sea in Southern California has the similar record carved in the surrounding mountains. Adding water to the Dead Sea has happened many times in the past. This time it will be caused by man and not Mother Nature.
bump
On the third hand, you are picture perfect, and I'll ask one more favor on Christmas day.
/johnny
I was thinking more of pressure along a fault, than erosion.
Oceans come and Oceans go, lakes form and then disappear, animals appear and then become extinct, regardless of the reason it is still the "natural order" of things except to an environmentalist it means they need to stick their noses in and impose regulations on everything in sight.
Don’t talk to the script.
It just makes you look crazy : )
Also, don’t taunt it, it may flood us into oblivion. j/k
Trust the non-human intellects, regardless of when they come from.
/johnny
I'm ok with that. I'll do authentic frontier gibberish, if you'll get a paying crowd together. Dag nab it.
/johnny
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