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The California Aqueduct from the Owens Valley in eastern California is an example of an interbasin water supply with energy recovery. The water flows through open channels from diversion dams (low height structures) to the east side of the mountains surrounding Los Angeles basin. It is them pumped over the hills into a series of open reservoirs on the west sides of the range. The dams creating these reservoirs are equipped with hydropower turbines to recover some, but far from all, the energy used to lift the water over the mountains. This project was started in the 1920’s and is still being improved.
The major environmental impacts were the creation of vast fruit plantations in the LA basin and eventually a huge human population. The industry and automobiles that accompanied the people, even though the first transport system was light rail electric trolleys, have created a huge air pollution problem. Sometimes the air in the basin is run through so many engines so many times it becomes actually harmful to humans. The other problem was the desertification of a once fertile Owens Valley that supported several ranching and farming communities. They had their water either bought or stolen by the LA politicians and, if you believe the premise of the book and movie “Chinatown”, the LA Mob.
If anyone is interested I can write about the inadvertent transfer of vast amounts of water from the Colorado River into the Imperial Valley of California. There is also the vast amount of water transferred out of the Colorado River downstream of the Grand Canyon. The biggest problem with this system has been caused by allocating volumes of water from a greatly over estimated historical flow.
Major environmental projects, the type that are big enough to effect local weather and ecosystems, do you approve of them?
You mean like the deforestation projects that are having more of an impact on climate change than the Keystone pipeline and all the carbon burning combined?
Major environmental projects, the type that are big enough to effect local weather and ecosystems, do you approve of them?
You mean like the deforestation projects that are having more of an impact on climate change than the Keystone pipeline and all the carbon burning combined?
Since this is being revived, another thought that comes to mind is I really wonder how much effect this project would have. the below sea level areas may seem huge but in the overall scheme compared to the vast amounts of water in the oceans, may have little effect. Just a suppostion, I really have no clue.
Since this is being revived, another thought that comes to mind is I really wonder how much effect this project would have. the below sea level areas may seem huge but in the overall scheme compared to the vast amounts of water in the oceans, may have little effect. Just a suppostion, I really have no clue.
Yes, maybe so, but I was thinking about the amount of freshwater they would release through evaporation, and hopefully have a positive effect on at least the local rainfall.
I only revived this thread because I've been watching the effects drought is having in such places as California, and seeing that if nothing is done soon, a whole load of irreversible damage will occur.
From what I'm hearing, this could be the start of a 100 year drought, I think the time for sitting on one's hands has passed. These ideas may be small, but at least they are simple, and may just help.
Last edited by BECLAZONE; 05-06-2015 at 09:38 AM..
In regards the specific problem of mitigating sea level rise by storing water-- Total ocean area is 3.6 x10^8 km^2...Sea level rise is on the order of 2mm/decade....(Is that significant compared to daily tidal changes of 10-200 cm?)...anyways-- To reduce sea level by 1mm, you'd need a reservoir 100 m deep covering an area of 600 km x 600km (~ 1.25x the size of Wyoming) ...Where ya gunna put the dirt you dig out?'''and to stop the 2mm rise, you'd need twice that every 10 yrs...all to correct a non-problem.
Wind farms may affect local climate, and, by The Butterfly Effect, possibly have more extensive effects. Those effects progress geometriclly with increasing size of installations. https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...local-climate/
Urbanization/urban sprawl already affects local weather with the well known Urban Heat Island effect.
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