[MrFlorida]

California can build desalinization plants, and pump water in from the Pacific.

[Keefelane66]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

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.

Don’t worry we’ll be in another ice age in maybe 5,000 years and don’t even think of bringing up climate change as an issue. We are in the middle of Summer rainy season and they are pumping water in the new section to prevent home flooding let’s build more homes in a swamp.

[kkingston57]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

So very true we are a bunch of water snobs

A lot of truth to that, especially when I see bottled water from FIJI, Evian from Europe etc.

Per the original idea, idea is OK but ? the logistics. Am sure that the environmentalists will have their lobbyists involved. No easy answer to this water problem.

[MartinSE]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

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.

The problem is one of magnitude. (And as someone else mentioned, cost per gallon).

1. I grew up in S. Florida at a time when the sugar cane farmers in central Florida needed more water, so they got Florida to build a canal system with the worlds largest pumps (at that time) so they could move all the "extra" water from south Florida and the Everglades up to their farms when they needed it, and back down to S. Florida when they had too much.

It did not go well, For a decade or two we had floods and all kinds of unexpected problems. The canals became clogged with over growth of water plants which multiplied like crazy because the constantly moving water tore them up and spread them. They brought in an invasive species of fish to eat the plants and they got out of control. So, they brought in another invasive species of fish to control them, and on and on. Anyway, you can read about it using google. It too a LONG time to get it mostly working and there are still some parts that don't work too well.

2. The magnitude of water needed is vastly larger than the oil being moved in pipes. A acre foot of water is about 325,000 gallons. The reservoir, Lake Meade, held roughly 30 million acre-feet of water (that is just one of MANY reservoirs) which comes out to about 10 trillion gallons of water for one reservoir and it is drying up. (look up Lake Meade and see what is happening there - 25 million people are running out of water that use that one "lake").

We all recall I am sure of the time, cost and issues around the Keystone pipeline extension. The extension would have moved around 20 million gallons of oil per day. At that rate it would take a year to move the water held by Lake Meade...

I agree, it seems like it could be done - technically, and maybe it could, but we can't ever pass a bill in Congress today to treat vets with deadly conditions as a result of serving the country because of well - you know the "P" word. And that was a cost of just $30 million per year.

Imagine the cost of moving trillions of gallons of water across the country. Imagine all the National, State, and local politics of running that pipeline, and the graft of all the pork barrels bills to fund it.

And then there is the cost of running the pumps to move all that water. Most people could not afford to pay what the water would cost to just pay the operating expenses, much less to recoup the cost to build all the pipelines.

And then imagine the law suits of people that are having THEIR water shipped off to other people. Ahem...

I think I heard Bill Maher propose the same thing a few months(?) ago. And I did a little googling to find out how practical it was/is. It appears to be possible but not likely.

[Worldseries27]

Originally Posted by mrflorida

california can build desalinization plants, and pump water in from the pacific.

whatever happened to cloud seeding ?

[Luggage]

There were plans for desalination plants in San Diego and Los Angeles for the last several years, courts have decided for the voters not to allow these. A desalination plant costs anywhere from 1 to 2 billion dollars and California has a 100 billion dollar Surplus so it's not the money, it's the will of the people and the stupidity of others

[Luggage]

New Orleans was the biggest waste of money to control their sea level City

[Sandy and Ed]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

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.

Amen

[rsmurano]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

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.

I lived in Santa Barbara in my teens and back then they had water problems: their source of drinking water was on the other side of the mountains and it would run low. So the city of SB built a desalination plant which cost them $30m. For the next 20-30 years, the plant was more off than on. Then in 2017 after the plant was dormant for years, the city paid $70M to reactivate the plant and the county voted to run the plant consistently. So there are ways to provide water in California but they choose not too. California has also done very little in forest management because of the activist groups for decades. IMO, California’s lack of infrastructure maintenance (remember the dam that eroded/broke a couple years ago was caused by lack of maintenance, and the state knew this could happen for 10 years) has contributed to what are have been seeing these last few years. I agree the drought hasn’t helped, but Californian’s still water their lawns and wash their cars

[bogmonster]

The problem is more of a legal thing than a physical thing. Say Minnesota with all our lakes and rivers. We could pipe water there but we would have to sign a contract for x million gallons of water per y. If a drought hits, guess who won’t get water, the locals that don’t live in that hell hole out west.

[dhdallas]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

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.

These area's water supplies have been steadily dwindling for decades. The taxpayers should not have to pay for fools who bought homes there. Can you believe that a sane person would pay $500,000+ for a home and no well with the understanding that water had to be trucked in? Now they are crying the blues because their previous water supply areas are holding onto what water they have for their own communities. Caveat emptor!

[dtennent]

One problem with building a pipeline from the Mississippi (assuming that one could build a pipeline big enough) to the west coast is that eventually the Mississippi would be like the Colorado river. The Colorado has been reduced dramatically before it hits the Pacific Ocean for decades now. (Google Colorado River Delta).

Even if we could do this, it would have no effect on the wildfires. Maybe Joni Mitchell was right -

They took all the trees
Put ‘‘em in a tree museum
And they charged all the people an arm and a just to see ‘em

[airstreamingypsy]

Originally Posted by Keefelane66

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.

Buying water in bottles is an abomination. People who do it don't care about the environment at all, think of the plastic waste. 91% of plastic is not recycled. 22 billion plastic bottles wind up in landfills.

Water comes out of faucets, fill a pitcher and put it in your fridge.

[NoMo50]

Originally Posted by Luggage

New Orleans was the biggest waste of money to control their sea level City

It would be one thing if New Orleans was AT sea level, but it is not. Look at a topographical map of that region. New Orleans sits in a bowl that is below the levels of both the Gulf and Lake Pontchartrain. Build all the levees you want, sooner or later Mother Nature will show them who's the boss.

[MrFlorida]

Originally Posted by Worldseries27

whatever happened to cloud seeding ?

It went out with the rain dance....