Posted on 09/24/2014 6:20:47 AM PDT by xzins
Much of it poison, unfortunately. There’s a reason many deserts are akali flats. And many of the deep aquifers are finite and have no source of replenishment.
When I was stationed at Holloman AFB in NM, CE put out a booklet when moving on base. It said, “The water on base is perfectly safe to drink, but do not use it to water plants.”
I lived in the desert for many years, and know how precious water is. Take a look at the impact of the California aqueducts if you want to see climate change in action.
There is a way to deal with that though. One begins with halophytic plants that animals will eat. The animals then spread those salts away from basins so that the now mobilized and complexed ions can be rinsed from the area into rivers over time. Send it out to sea.
I’ve read a few of your posts over the years, and think you have some very interesting ideas. However, this one won’t work too well in the SW because there is no drainage in most desert basins. From the Eastern Sierras to the to the continental divide is pretty much land and water locked.
There are solutions for most environmental issues, but they all require tradeoffs that this country is no longer willing to attempt. The elites would rather see the population die off before their precious environmental dreams.
You mean like the Humboldt and Walker Rivers? You sound like a Nevada guy. :-) Correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect you are talking about more the central Great Basin and not the southwest where the Gila, Colorado, and Rio Grande do carry the salts to sea. Even so, according to the range consultants I know using halophytes and grazing that way has already been done to some beneficial effect in a few places.
Further, the point holds about the Sahara and the Arabian Peninsula, which both have extensive ancient river systems to the sea. In fact, at one time what is now a tributary to the Nile used to run west all the way to Lake Chad and thence to the Niger, all the way to the Atlantic. There are similar river systems in Arabia, two of which are mentioned in early Genesis as the Gihon (the Kuwait River) and the Pishon (the "Empty Quarter" River). There are basins because the local topography is so flat, but they did fill and drain as little as 6,000 years ago.
There are solutions for most environmental issues, but they all require tradeoffs that this country is no longer willing to attempt.
True indeed. It'll take an entirely different system for managing competing risks. This winner-take-all system the courts have made is an absolute disaster.
In the US, many of the aquifers, like the Oglala, date back to the last ice age. Any surface water draining through all that rock would be marginal at best.
Actually my folks live near the Walker. Not sure the last time you saw the Rio Grand, but last I was in El Paso, it was not much more than a trickle. it’s not global warming, but simple misuse. Damned if the federalis and businesses haven’t colluded to destroy the entire system of water rights—right preceding the foundation of this country! Just another aspect of Nixon’s statist utopia.
I grew up on the dry side of the Sierras, and it wasn’t that long ago that residents used to regularly blow up the aqueducts. And rangers wore Smokey Bear hats and didn’t have guns. Used to ride all over the place and hunt for “treasures;” both of which will get you jailed today.
Property rights are the very foundation of all natural rights, and the government knows that controlling is no different than taking. The only true difference is that we have no legal recourse. Conservatives rarely even challenge these assertions, and courts sidestep the larger issues consistently.
Not sure we deserve this country anymore, or maybe we deserve the one we’ve got.
Your initial comment was about a desert. The Ogalala is not a desert. I gave examples of deserts with water underneath them, and they are not small and neither are the aquifers.
Beautiful place, but an eery river in the spring, with all that rushing cold clear water in the midst of a desert. The Hamiltons are a cool place too, especially above 5,000 feet.
Property rights are the very foundation of all natural rights, and the government knows that controlling is no different than taking. The only true difference is that we have no legal recourse. Conservatives rarely even challenge these assertions, and courts sidestep the larger issues consistently.
I didn't. I gave up a career to take them on for the sake of property rights, 'lives, fortunes, and Sacred Honor,' and all that.
BTW, I've got another book in the final throes. FR mail me if you want to see a draft. I'll be posting an update in the next day or two.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.