Interstate Water Fiasco
Jun. 3rd, 2021 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithSome people are calling for a massive pipeline to move water to the dry southwest. This is a terrible idea.
First, look at the damage done to western ecosystems by water extraction. It has all but destroyed the rivers and their anadromous fish, once the richest ecosystem of Turtle Island. The Mississippi River has enough challenges from humans walling off its floodplains; it doesn't need to be drained of water on top of that.
Second, infrastructure is expensive and it fails. Build it now, cover up the problem of water shortage, and that just makes matters worse 5-10 years down the line when the system starts needing significant repairs. And America loves building but hates repairs, so you can expect a water system to reach the shitty condition of the roads and bridges in very short order.
A civilization must live within its water budget. That means each region gets only what its rain, rivers, etc. can provide. If you don't like the restrictions, move somewhere with more water, because there is only so much that technology can do to cover up the shortage.
Things that would actually help, that people don't want to do:
* Ban commercial drainage of aquifers. Reserve that for local use.
* Stop watering lawns, golf courses, and everything else.
* Reforest the uplands to store water from seasonal rains and release it through year-round runoff.
* Only grow crops whose water needs match the availability of local water resources.
* Encourage people to move from low-water to high-water areas.
* Study measures in other countries to conserve water, since America uses several times as much as the more frugal countries do.
First, look at the damage done to western ecosystems by water extraction. It has all but destroyed the rivers and their anadromous fish, once the richest ecosystem of Turtle Island. The Mississippi River has enough challenges from humans walling off its floodplains; it doesn't need to be drained of water on top of that.
Second, infrastructure is expensive and it fails. Build it now, cover up the problem of water shortage, and that just makes matters worse 5-10 years down the line when the system starts needing significant repairs. And America loves building but hates repairs, so you can expect a water system to reach the shitty condition of the roads and bridges in very short order.
A civilization must live within its water budget. That means each region gets only what its rain, rivers, etc. can provide. If you don't like the restrictions, move somewhere with more water, because there is only so much that technology can do to cover up the shortage.
Things that would actually help, that people don't want to do:
* Ban commercial drainage of aquifers. Reserve that for local use.
* Stop watering lawns, golf courses, and everything else.
* Reforest the uplands to store water from seasonal rains and release it through year-round runoff.
* Only grow crops whose water needs match the availability of local water resources.
* Encourage people to move from low-water to high-water areas.
* Study measures in other countries to conserve water, since America uses several times as much as the more frugal countries do.
Well ...
Date: 2021-06-04 10:00 am (UTC)Floodwater is not potable and not easy to purify.
Also, they won't take from places that far away. They'll take from the closest states with enough water to rob.
>>Although, the repair issues just mean that American is going to have to put on it's grown-up panties and start acting like a mature society and not the Wild-West it used to be.<<
They can't. They literally cannot afford to maintain the massive sprawl of infrastructure they already have, let alone add more; but they only want to add more, not maintain what they have.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2021-06-04 10:13 am (UTC)This should help
If it wasn't for America's bloated military budget and it's corporate 'free ride' taxes, it would have enough money to spend on infrastructure, by quite a bit! Biden is at least beginning to address that. Like a responsible adult, for a change.
And flood waters, if they are captured before they become a flood, [which I guess means they aren't really, but which is basically the whole idea] are fine to use.
That said, a coast to coast network of interstate pipelines acting as load balancing system of water distribution could work.. you just need each state to build out to it's closest neighbours. After all, it works [usually] with power grids... Texas being the exception that proves the rule.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2021-06-04 02:07 pm (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2021-06-04 04:45 pm (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2021-06-04 07:30 pm (UTC)Regarding salination: Any irrigation system that applies regular water where the land is not periodically rinsed by flooding will have salination problems due to evaporation. Distilled water contains no salt or minerals, but is expensive to make. Many traditional societies prevent the problem by farming floodplains, which are regularly rinsed by floodwaters but can be easily irrigated by their adjacent waterway during the dry season.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2021-06-05 03:07 am (UTC)Thank you! :)
>>Regarding salination: Any irrigation system that applies regular water where the land is not periodically rinsed by flooding will have salination problems due to evaporation.<<
So anything irrigated by river, aquifer, or grid-water will be accumulating trace minerals. Does that mean our current irrigation is tanking the fields b/c of trace minerals/chemicals?
>>Distilled water contains no salt or minerals, but is expensive to make.<<
What about rainwater? Does that count as distilled, at least until it gets on/in the ground and picks up trace minerals?
Also isn't there cloud/fog farming? Would that count as distilled?
And in hot areas* could someone make something like a giant airtight solar oven that would boil seawater and transfer the steam to a cooler area to recondense?
*a seaside desert, or a specialized floating facility in tropical oceans?
>>Many traditional societies prevent the problem by farming floodplains, which are regularly rinsed by floodwaters but can be easily irrigated by their adjacent waterway during the dry season.<<
Alternate crazy scheme, invert the problem and take it up to eleven with kelp farming, fish farming and oyster farming in the ocean. (Or coral farming. Is farmed coral a thing, for aquarium decorations or jewelry or other stuff?)