NASA predicts "Megadrought" yet to come (Oroville, Clyde: train, land)

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by UB50

The federal government would have to nationalize water. In the years to come, that might not be so far fetched. If global climate change makes the sea levels rise and much of the East Coast goes underwater, there will be big changes in this country.

Rising sea levels will seep into some aquifers, too.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

One can dream. But the global weather system may not cooperate. In order for "jefferson" to have surplus water, it needs to have, well, surplus water. It would need a good snowpack. Those snowpacks have been getting very "iffy" the last decade or so. As predicted, there's getting to be more rain than snow.

But, y'know, it was a great idea while it lasted.

Besides, do you have any idea how much water evaporates from those aqueducts? They'll have to come up with a better design if they're going to invest heavily in aqueducts.

Excellent points! Even right now, snow packs all the way up into Washington are barely there at all.

The problem with this idea of moving water is the same as building cities in arid locations; it's dependent what we know of weather at any one time. What happens then when the areas we are moving water from experience drought, especially a prolonged drought? We're right back to square one again. What we need to do is implement into recycling more water. Keep more of the disposed water in the system. There are biological ways of cleaning water to the point of drinkability. Also, storm drains...why? That water just gets released into the ocean. I am surprised a way hasn't been thought of to capture more storm water for purification. Both of these would be far more efficient than moving water and being at the mercy of mother nature and hoping that expected weather is what we end up getting, far too often, it isn't. We would still need to move some water but far less than we currently do and this would make us far less vulnerable to droughts.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by UB50

The federal government would have to nationalize water. In the years to come, that might not be so far fetched. If global climate change makes the sea levels rise and much of the East Coast goes underwater, there will be big changes in this country.

What exactly do you mean here? The distribution of water is already under federal jurisdiction despite people making claims that certain states would not want to give up their water. The states have no say in that.

[TheDragonslayer]

Originally Posted by MattClyde

If it isn't already done why not channel water from the "state" of Jefferson into the central valley?

While the drought is a bad thing it can have some positives if effort is put into advancing hydraulic technology in order to combat the drought. Maybe California will have one day have a futuristic aqueduct system that the world look upon in amazement at and emulate.

One can dream?

It is already done. Lake Shasta, Trinity lake, Lewiston Lake and Whiskeytown lakes all get channeled or piped down south for drinking and irrigation. Most of our water does not even stay here. We may get the rain, but everyone south gets the water, why take more from us then you are already getting? It is causing death in the fish that live in our rivers. Even the Eel river that flows to Humboldt bay has a portion of its water relocated to the Russian river.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by TheDragonslayer

It is already done. Lake Shasta, Trinity lake, Lewiston Lake and Whiskeytown lakes all get channeled or piped down south for drinking and irrigation. Most of our water does not even stay here. We may get the rain, but everyone south gets the water, why take more from us then you are already getting? It is causing death in the fish that live in our rivers. Even the Eel river that flows to Humboldt bay has a portion of its water relocated to the Russian river.

^^^More good points for recycling water and catching more of our own storm water despite how erratic they can be. We would still need some of that water but far less so we could likely reduce the amount taken.

[UB50]

Regarding the snow -- maybe someone could develop something like a snow vacuum. It could have a long, fat, flexible hose (like fire hoses) that could be linked and laid alongside the interstate freeways that go East/West. (That way, you wouldn't have to dig tunnels or put up permanent infrastructure.)

You could go to whatever areas have too much snow and just vacuum it up. Send it back to the Western states.

That could not only help the Western states get water, it would help alleviate flooding in the states that get too much snow.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by UB50

Regarding the snow -- maybe someone could develop something like a snow vacuum. It could have a long, fat, flexible hose (like fire hoses) that could be linked and laid alongside the interstate freeways that go East/West. (That way, you wouldn't have to dig tunnels or put up permanent infrastructure.)

You could go to whatever areas have too much snow and just vacuum it up. Send it back to the Western states.

That could not only help the Western states get water, it would help alleviate flooding in the states that get too much snow.

This ignores the problem I mentioned with this east/west scenario; you would still have to pump it the whole way. Like I said, the continent and by extension, the lower 48 states on it, rise in altitude from east to west, at least until you get to the Mississippi River which is still two thirds of the way and why the rivers flow in that direction. If you go all the way to the Atlantic, you would have to pump it over the Appalachians. You would then have to put a pumping station about every 50 miles or so to keep the water moving once passed the Ms. River. Only once west of the mountains could you use gravity like we do in the Sierras. The cost of that would be astronomical.

[UB50]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

This ignores the problem I mentioned with this east/west scenario; you would still have to pump it the whole way. Like I said, the continent and by extension, the lower 48 states on it, rise in altitude from east to west, at least until you get to the Mississippi River which is still two thirds of the way and why the rivers flow in that direction. If you go all the way to the Atlantic, you would have to pump it over the Appalachians. You would then have to put a pumping station about every 50 miles or so to keep the water moving once passed the Ms. River. Only once west of the mountains could you use gravity like we do in the Sierras. The cost of that would be astronomical.

Don't we already have pipelines for oil that come to the West Coast? (I seem to recall we had something like that from back when Enron was happening....) Maybe we could use those pipelines for water?

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by UB50

Don't we already have pipelines for oil that come to the West Coast? (I seem to recall we had something like that from back when Enron was happening....) Maybe we could use those pipelines for water?

Oil is different, priority wise. We NEED to drive and have lives full of plastic.
We don't NEED water. We can drink soda and bathe in champagne. We're Americans!

Anyways, best let gravity do most of the work for you. Pipeline from mouth of Mississippi west cross flat Texas and along southern border.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by UB50

Don't we already have pipelines for oil that come to the West Coast? (I seem to recall we had something like that from back when Enron was happening....) Maybe we could use those pipelines for water?

The oil companies themselves are the ones paying to move it. With water, the federal government would be responsible.

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Oil is different, priority wise. We NEED to drive and have lives full of plastic.
We don't NEED water. We can drink soda and bathe in champagne. We're Americans!

Anyways, best let gravity do most of the work for you. Pipeline from mouth of Mississippi west cross flat Texas and along southern border.

Land still rises as you come west. the land rises in both directions from the MS River, that's why the area around it is called the Mississippi Valley.