I'm a free thinker.?ÿ I'm visualizing iceberg hunting like they used to hunt whales.?ÿ Drag one back to San Diego and figger some way to melt it down and distribute.?ÿ A 'small' iceberg (around 3,000' x 1,500' x 600') might gross 20 billion gallons (if I did my math right).?ÿ That's enough to fill a lot people's sweet tea glasses.
The Lake Mead water level declined by over six feet from 1 to 30 April according to figures reported by the ?ÿLas Vegas Review Journal. The highest level water intake at the dam is now exposed.
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Among other efforts, the state of Nevada has a policy to remove grass on which no one treads. Formerly lush medians have been replaced with more desert-appropriate vegetation. ?ÿ
My cynicism about the program??s implementation was undermined when I saw the grand grassy entrances to some of the exclusive neighborhoods had been removed. Perhaps this is a serious effort.
These efforts are insufficient especially with continuing high numbers of people moving here and the historic low rainfall amounts. Our year-to-date precipitation is 0.16 inches; the departure from normal is -1.84 inches.
@mightymoe I really am ignorant on the topic but it seems they have a huge water storage facility in Lake Mead that has tremendous capacity that currently is not being utilized. Where would they get the water for these other storage facilities that need to be built?
That would be one big damn dam.?ÿ The dam alone would cover several States and require soil from a few more.?ÿ Probably couldn't back it up all the way to the Rockies, though.?ÿ The northeastern end of the dam would be somewhere in Pennsylvania at whatever elevation that is.?ÿ The splllway would need to be connected to the Atlantic Ocean.
Well, everyone wants to live on the coasts, so maybe this is the way to go.
Lake Mead is on the Colorado River system, the drainage begins in the mountains in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. These drainages have older priority water rights connected to them. Wyoming has the gold standard for water rights since Mead himself set up the system. And because those rights were ajudicated going back to territorial times they have priority and supercede later storage water rights.?ÿ
When upstream priority right holders use their water it impacts the storage downstream.?ÿ
California could build dams to capture water in the California mountains for local uses, but it seems that's not politically viable.?ÿ
I'm not sure what portions of California benefit from the Colorado, I've always assumed it was more for Northern Mexico and the valleys southwest of Vegas.?ÿ
Maybe California has used up all it's storage possibilities, but I doubt it.?ÿ
After doing a bit more thinking on it, I realized once the water level hit about 1100 msl the lake formed would try to dump into Lake Michigan.?ÿ Baton Rouge sets at about 55 msl, so that would be one very tall and wide dam at that point.
My water comes from rain into a 15K gal. cistern that probably added to $30K to the cost of the house. Water trucks run all the time taking 3K gals. to fill pools, water the landscaping and provide hour long showers to tourists at $300 - $600 per truckload. Houses with municipal desal water pay about $0.05 per gallon, I think.?ÿ When Californians pay like that, they will get serious.?ÿ
I grew up using a cistern and we collected rainwater from the roof of the house and garage.?ÿ We would go years without needing to buy water and I think a 3,000 load of water only cost about $50.?ÿ If you had a portable tank, you could drive down to one of a dozen or so public wells, put in $2 in quarters and haul it yourself.
On a serious note; if anything was ever constructed for diversion of watersheds on the east side of the continental divide to the west it would probably be a complex network of smaller reservoirs, pipelines and lift stations.?ÿ All starting smaller in the east and growing larger to the west.?ÿ Then somewhere out west where public lands still exist all the networks might converge on two or three larger reservoirs.?ÿ Surely the COE would be responsible for managing the system.?ÿ From there the task of hefting it all over the divide could begin and eventually allow gravity to do its thing as the water is delivered to the needier arid regions.
PS - I don't know about reservoir sites, but abandoned RR RW would be perfect for a string of larger diameter water mains and lift stations.
Don't forget that somewhere along the route every drop would need to be boiled to kill every living organism.?ÿ Otherwise, a massive influx of foreign critters would begin to contaminate the West.?ÿ Sort of like the Chinese jumping fish.
Zebra mussels are a scourge in the east and middle of the country.?ÿ So far I don't think they are a big problem in the west, but that would be one of the first things to show up in a pipeline.
On a serious note; if anything was ever constructed for diversion of watersheds on the east side of the continental divide to the west it would probably be .... ....
ENORMOUS. My city of about 100,000 gets most of its drinking water from a reservoir in the western part of the county through a 36" pipe.?ÿ There is a 66" pipe passing through our city on its way to Portland - and that is only a fraction of Portland's water.?ÿ In order to make a real dent in the needs of all the cities and towns of the west, plus the agricultural needs, we would need to divert a significant portion of the whole Mississippi river. And somehow pump that over the Rocky Mountains. And as Paden says, sterilize it. Forget it. Not realistic.?ÿ?ÿ
ENORMOUS. My city of about 100,000 gets most of its drinking water from a reservoir in the western part of the county through a 36" pipe.?ÿ There is a 66" pipe passing through our city on its way to Portland - and that is only a fraction of Portland's water.?ÿ In order to make a real dent in the needs of all the cities and towns of the west, plus the agricultural needs, we would need to divert a significant portion of the whole Mississippi river. And somehow pump that over the Rocky Mountains...
Makes my idea of harpooning icebergs and dragging them to port seem almost plausible.
If I could I would redirect all of those to the dry side of the Rockies.?ÿ We definitely did not need all we have had in the past week, let alone all of it outside right now.?ÿ Spring planting may well be Summer planting if this doesn't back off for a while.
California could build dams to capture water in the California mountains for local uses, but it seems that's not politically viable.?ÿ
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To help control flooding in Orange County, USACE built the Seven Oaks dam in San Bernardino county in a canyon northeast of Redlands/Highland/San Bernardino, completed in 2000. There was talk of using some of the water by the local water districts but what's there is too silty to make it viable. According to wikipedia, it's nowhere near capacity.
