Moving Water
 

It seems to every year at this time we’re witnessing severe drought and devastating fires in California while torrential rains and flooding in the southern mid west. I see that we can move billions of gallons of oil from Canada to Texas and I wonder why we can’t move billions of gallons of water from flooded areas to drought impacted areas. I used to think this was absurd but the I thought about the oil pipeline. I’d bet that engineers exist that could do this.

For the exact same reason The Villages is not allow to move water between counties. Water is the basis of life and maintaining that balance as much as possible, sustains life as we know it.

Oceans cover 70% of the earth. The is not, nor has there ever been, a shortage of available water. There's a shortage of will to operate desalination plants.

There are some things only God can control.

It is a well proven fact that engineers can move water. The Army of Corps of Engineers even stopped the water from flowing over Niagra Falls in 1969.

But, a gallon of oil costs about $2.40 as compared to a gallon of water at $0.002. So, crude oil is worth about 1200 times as much as raw water. I think that may have something to do with why they don't spend money to move water.

The Romans developed the technology in about 300 BC. But, I bet at least for California desalination and/or membrane filtration using inexpensive solar energy would be cheaper.

We're not talking about just moving water...we're talking about moving water that's uncontrollable without dams. so what you're suggesting is that oil(just sitting in shale or sand or pools is the same as water moving at quite a rate with no way to coral it without building a massive series of dams and directional barriers. Also you don't know when the rains will cause flooding...you'd have to filter out all the debris(trees, houses, cars, rocks dead animals, etc).

It doesn't take a genius to come up with a truly viable solution to a problem, but it does take a lot of common sense. this idea...while it sounds neat...is useless.

The Villages moves water and controls flooding all the time. They pump water from one retention pond to another, and they turn on the sprinkler system to lower pond levels.

It appears to me that the western part of our nation cannot support its current population.

It already happens in Massachusetts. Most of the potable water used in the greater Boston area is brought in via pipes from the Quabbin Reservoir in western Mass.

Isn’t it surprising we have been convinced to buy bottled water because domestically purified city/county water isn’t as good for consumption.
Sumter County has wells and a company actually transports water by tanker trucks to Ocala for processing and bottling.
As kids we would drink from a hose bib or out of the kitchen faucet guess water purifications standards were driven by cost reductions the bottled water industry was created.
There are actually water machines in some supermarkets that have convinced people to refill 5 gallon jugs with what? Filtered City/County water.

But think of the damage caused by water or lack thereof in those two areas. I would guess that the thousands of homes, cars and other properties that are lost every year add up to much more than the difference between the cost of water and oil. Then we should consider the number of lives lost.

I agree. The earth is a closed system. It's not a matter of a shortage of water. It's a matter of distribution.

Problem is.
Not much gets done, when you work from home!

So very true we are a bunch of water snobs

People can move. Personally, I think it is a water of money to spend billions of dollars so that people can live in New Orleans at below sea level. Or, to continue to rebuild property that gets flooded out every few years.

Agreed they should live in those areas at their own risk and pay for any repairs out of their own pocket.