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William Shatner Proposes $30 Billion Water Pipeline To California
Taco Cowboy writes The 84-year-old Star Trek star wants to build a water pipeline to California. All it'll cost, according to Mr. Shatner, is $30 billion, and he wants to KickStarter the funding campaign. According to Mr. Shatner, if the KickStarter campaign doesn't raise enough money then he will donate whatever that has been collected to a politician who promise to build that water pipe. Where does he wants to get the water? Seattle, "A place where there's a lot of water. There's too much water," says Mr. Shatner.
Governor Inslee expands drought emergency to include more of Washington
This seems like a bad idea. It doesn't solve the issue of them wanting to grow crops in a dessert. And they have the audacity to suggest building a pipeline to an area that is currently suffering from a drought? Sure, Washington state won't be drought-stricken forever, but what will they do when both states are in a drought?
How about build a desalination plant with use of nuclear power in California?
...so the poorer people will move out. Nice plan. How about putting water meters on farm consumption, most have no meters at all. Most ag water users pay zero, or close to that. How about letting the market decide where almonds and lettuce should be grown, instead of giving CA farmers a massive subsidy while cities go dry?
Seattle doesn't get that much water, it just rains more days per year. Actually, we have a drought quite often, which is quite problematic.
I, for one, will NEVER stop sprinkling shaved almonds on my Romaine lettuce!
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Not sure where you got the idea that agricultural water users pay nothing for water use. If anything, they're currently paying more and more (Source.). Also, the market doesn't decide where almonds and lettuce should be grown. Soil and climate determines that and, for the past century, California's had both the soil and the climate.
That's a fallacy.
The 2 "crops" that are taking the water:
Shut those 2 things down and water problem solved.
UPS Sucks
Or, we east coasters could stop eat so much lettuce.
Or we could start growing our own again.
We do. Find a nice local CSA, Support them. Ours is now doing produce year round thanks to hoop and green houses .
UPS Sucks
Guys, people plant in California because it's one of the most fertile soils in the USA.
No, they plant there because of the temps. NOT the soil. Its "fertile" because of Monsanto chemicals.
UPS Sucks
a four-foot pipeline isn't going to fix bugger all.
At high water velocity (i.e. not long haul practical) the best a four foot pipeline can do is approximately 4 000 litres per second (about 1000 usgal/s) or about 300,000 cubic meters per day. At this flow rate, the headlosses would require multiple pumping stations to keep the water moving. The electrical costs would be enormous. Additionally, At 0.4 cu.m./cap/day that would support approximately 750,000 people at average North American usage rates. Somehow a generational project like this should serve more than just a portion of L.A.
How about California spends a whole lot less cash and start recycling a portion of the billions of gallons of water released by Californians into the sea?
If only we could fall into a woman's arms without falling into her hands
Desalination is a plausible solution for water for consumer use--that is, urban and suburban locations.
It is not a very plausible solution for agricultural use-- too expensive. Do you realize that those people take the water and just dump it on the ground?
*(well, some of the suburban people just spray it on the ground, too. But they spray millions and millions of gallons on lawns. Sounds like a lot... but agriculture uses trillions of gallons.)
Water rights are complicated. Since the rule is, whoever grabbed it first owns the rights to the water, the people who own it aren't necessarily the ones who use it most responsibly. http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Agriculture is 80% of California's water use (although only 1.5% of California's economy) The big problem is almonds. Who would have thought that such a niche foodstuff would drive agricultural water? https://www.bostonglobe.com/bu...
Trillions? Yep: http://science.nasa.gov/scienc...
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
From what I've read, The Alfalfa crops are about 1B gallons of water being moved to China.
This chart http://www.rollingalpha.com/wp... shows what crops are the thirstiest...
From: http://www.rollingalpha.com/20...
UPS Sucks
Nestle's claims they use 700 million gallons a year bottling. This is the equivalent of what two golf courses use. CA has over 1100 golf courses.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Indeed. Cadillac Desert is a fantastic documentary about Mulhollands Dream, aka the rape and pillage of Owen's Lake.
In 9 parts
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
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First Contact is coming 2024. Are you ready for a new perspective?
If Washington State is anything like British Columbia (and considering they're right next door to each other, and Washington is south of the 49th), there are looming water problems; an extremely low snow pack which will likely mean water restrictions in some areas. Yes, it's rains a lot in the region, but the way that rain is "captured" is through snowfall.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Are you being sarcastic or serious? Because that is exactly what happens right now. Read this for starters. California already gets a larger portion of water from the Colorado River than any other entity - including Mexico. Mexico gets less than 10%.
That's a fallacy.
The 2 "crops" that are taking the water:
Shut those 2 things down and water problem solved.
You forgot the delta smelt. Not exactly a crop since you can't harvest them, but a huge sink of water nonetheless.