Beyond The Horizon
ICYMI: The Creation Of The Interstate Waterway System
There is a serious issue that is plaguing the Southwest and Western portions of the United States. That issue is drought. Yet, besides conservation and restrictions it doesn't seem that the government, local or federally has a plan. There is one idea that really makes sense however.
That idea is the Interstate Water System. An ambitious project that would see pipelines and aqueducts built to bring water to the west from areas of the abundance. Instead of that water running off into the ocean or into lakes, why not move one of our most precious resources to an area of the country where it is needed the most?
(commercial at 10:55)
To contact me:
bobbycapucci@protonmail.com
source:
https://bigthink.com/the-present/an-interstate-water-system-could-fix-the-wests-water-woes/
- Duration:
- 19m
- Broadcast on:
- 21 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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So I've always said to myself, if we can build pipelines that carry oil across the country through continents, couldn't we do the same with pipelines that carry water? Now there's a lot of places around the country with a lot of excess water, a lot of rain, run-off. Isn't there a way we can harness that and build a pipeline to feed some of these reservoirs and other things out west? Well, I started doing a little research on it because it's not something I have seen very often, you know, anyone talk about. And I came across this article from BigThink.com, and it's a pretty good article, and it explains a little bit how we could do something like this, and the way they explain it is to create an interstate water system kind of like the highway system. And to me, it really makes sense. Why let all of that water go to waste from all of the rain, run-off, and all of the rest when we can use that water elsewhere, we can repurpose it. And considering the extreme need we have out here on the west coast and in the southwest, it just makes a lot of sense to me. All right, so let's dive into this article from BigThink, and let's see what Joseph Scholman, Josh Shafer, and Henry Miller have to say, headline, "An interstate water system could fix the west's water woes. We have pipelines for oil, oil, and natural gas. Why not water?" And I can't tell you how many times my dad and I have had this conversation sitting in the backyard. It just makes a whole lot of sense. Oh, I know it'll cost a lot of money. But so what? Let's pass a real infrastructure bill, billions and billions and trillions of dollars. Let's do it. And let's really fix the country. Can you imagine what would happen if there was, you know, no drought out west, no worries about drought, how that would open up agriculture and other sorts of businesses and infrastructure that would help the country out in general? California's water woes are severe and worsening. The second dryer in a row has diminished the state's water supply, and almost three-quarters of the state is an extreme or exceptional drought, the two highest categories. With the rainy season over and the hot, dry summer ahead, water shortages and brush fires are imminent. This article, by the way, was originally published on May 26 of 2021, but it still holds today. I know here in Vegas we had a relatively dry winter and the drought is just going to increase. Like I said, all you have to do is head down the lake mead and take a look at where the water levels are. And they're talking about now, even decreasing the flow from Lake Powell as well, it's going to have huge consequences. California is not alone. Other western states are facing severe and worsening water shortages. As described by the EPA, stress on water supplies and the nation's aging water treatment systems can lead to a variety of consequences for communities, including higher water prices, increased watering restrictions to manage shortages, seasonal loss of aquatic recreational areas, when the human demand for water conflicts with environmental needs, and expensive water treatment projects when local demand overcomes available capacity. But we check all of those categories here in Nevada. There are areas of Lake mead where you're not even allowed to launch your boat anymore. Areas that were used to launch boats for years. They are both consumption and supply problems, and neither will be easy to fix. However, we have a remedy to suggest for the latter that dovetails nicely with the congressional and White House initiatives to improve and expand the nation's infrastructure. One hundred percent, who wouldn't get behind an idea like this? You know, we have all of these different ideas and bills that are meant to divide us. What about some of these bills or projects that would bring us together? A problem of supply and demand? Americans use more water per capita than almost anyone else in the world. Almost three times as much as the Chinese, double that of Japan, and fourteen times more than the Danes. The highest domestic water use is in the driest western US states. Arizona residents use 147 gallons compared to just 51 gallons in Wisconsin. That will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen the heavily irrigated golf courses in places like Phoenix and Scottsdale. It's a big problem. There's no doubt that these golf courses are sapping a supply of the water. And here in Nevada, we're moving away from even having grass lawns. There's a lot of incentives for people to have rocks in their front yard, southwestern-type landscaping. But these golf courses, forget it. It's a huge drain on the water system. The situation in California, with its outsized population, massive agriculture and recurrent droughts over much of the past decade is particularly tenuous. There is a severe deficit of groundwater. For years, farmers in the central valley have liberally extracted water from the region's aquifers to compensate for reduced supplies from canals and aqueducts. As water levels have dropped, farmers, homeowners, and municipalities have dug deeper and deeper wells. But such measures only prolong the inevitable. The incidence of well failures is increasing. So there needs to be a supply of water being pumped into these areas. And if we do a plan like this, we can use this water to help irrigate lawns, irrigate crops, irrigate these stupid golf courses or whatever that help the commerce, whatever it might be. Instead of letting this water run off and run back into the ocean or into lakes or into rivers, we should be harnessing this. That's another resource. Why are we letting it just run off into the water? Would we do that with gold? Most proposed solutions, which have focused on conservation, have been unpalatable, while few have focused on ways to increase supply. And therein lies the rub. America does not have a water supply problem, it has a water distribution problem. That definitely is the case. How many places do we have here in the country that get pounded with rain, get pounded with snow? And if there was a way to harness all of that and bring those resources to the southwest, to California, we would just be increasing our ability to have better lives for our people, for our families, and for our communities. A pipeline for water. Therefore, to address the water shortages in western states, we propose a major new infrastructure project that could revolutionize water distribution in the United States and further development of the western half of the nation. Long distance pipelines and aqueducts. Now look, if the Romans could build aqueducts, I'm pretty sure we can do the same thing. It's not a lack of ability, it's a lack of willpower. And when we have our federal officials, our federal elected officials arguing over dumb shit on a regular basis, things like this never get handled. But this is a big-ass problem. And if you talk to geo-politic specialists, geo-politicians, people who look at, you know, an oncoming crisis, one of them is the shortage of water and it has a lot of people concerned. In much of the west, rain is sparse. Except for parts of the Pacific Northwest, water largely comes from a variety of non-precipitation sources. California, for example, has a hodgepodge of sources, one of the most important of which is the Colorado River, which supplies most of the water for farm irrigation and urban areas in the southern part of the state. And the Colorado River is the lifeblood of the southwest. Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Mexico all share the river's resources. However, the river is increasingly threatened by drought, with flows having dropped some 20% over the last two decades. Now that could tell you right there in itself the problem that we're facing here. When you have all of these states relying on this source of water as a federal government, they have to be aware of what's going on. And it just seems like they don't care. They're not interested in any solutions-- oh, stop drinking water. Only, you know, water your lawn once a week. That's all fine and well, but we have to find a way to replenish the water that we're using. The largest-- the largest eastern river, the Mississippi, has about 30 times the average annual flow of the Colorado and the Columbia has close to 10 times. Water from these and other large rivers pour unused into the sea. The Great Lakes are another possible source, so we can run pipelines from all of these areas. And we can bring that water to the west and build a huge aquifer. And can you imagine how prosperous that would make some of these regions in the west where no one can live right now? How it would make them not only habitable, but prosperous? We could do some kind of homesteading act maybe and open up government-owned land for people who have never owned a home before to get in on the, you know, American dream. The possibilities are limitless, but we have to be willing to think big. Owning a rental property sounds like a dream until you realize how much work goes into getting it ready. Determine a competitive rent price, market the property, schedule the showing screen tennis, drop the lease at a rent collection, handle maintenance request, make a dedication. Whew! Sound complicated? The warehouse is here to take the hard work off your rental to-do list. Qualified tenants? Check. 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We currently transport oil, but not water, across America, although water can move through pipelines, tunnels, and aqueducts with perfect safety, over long distances, on a virtually limitless scale. I have been arguing this for so long. That's why it was so refreshing to find this article to back up what I've been saying, because look, I don't have the scientific background, I'm not an engineer, I'm not a, you know, civil planner or anything like that, but I am somebody who can take a look at things and realize what we're doing is not working. And if we don't address it, we're going to have serious problems in the Southwest and California, and remember where a lot of our food comes from. Interstate Water System. We envision a major combined federal and private hallmark program for the nation, an interstate water system, which would rival an importance in transformative potential, the Interstate Highway System, whose formation was championed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. America already moves some water and stores it in man-made lakes, and the IWS would be designed to expand America's water-related infrastructure by crossing state boundaries to transport water from where America has an abundance of it to where it is needed. With modifications and expansion, over time, no part of America would find itself short of water. Now, what doesn't sound good about that? What is there to argue about that? Oh, it's going to cost a lot of money. Well, I promise you, it's going to cost a lot more if we don't address this. If we, what are we going to do? Abandon everything we've built in the West? Just leave it all? Yeah. All right. Sorry, everybody. Time to move from California. Nobody can live in Nevada anymore. That's not going to happen. That's Looney Toon Land. So we need to address the problem now before we're scrambling trying to address it in the future. The IWS is practical. Assume that an initial goal might be doubling the water flow, averaging about 20,000 cubic feet per second to the Colorado River System reservoirs. Pumping Mississippi River water to an altitude of 4,000 to 5,000 feet likely would be needed to supply reservoirs like meat, altitude 1,100 feet, and/or lake Powell altitude 3,600 feet. We estimate that it would require fewer than 10 power plants of typical 1 gigawatt size to provide the energy to move water halfway across the nation to double the flow of the Colorado River. Gravity driven flow turning turbines below its reservoir lakes would eventually regenerate much of the input energy required. So look, these people are way smarter than me, and they can certainly explain the engineering of it and the science of it, but the practicality of it, that's where I'm at. It's very practical, in my opinion, and I don't care about the cost. How much money do you think it would cost more than we're sending in arms around the world to people? At some point, we have to reevaluate what's going on and take a look inward and realize that we're headed for big trouble. The implications of an IWS would be enormous. It would create innumerable jobs, provide many construction and other business opportunities, and facilitate national growth and development, including greatly enhanced development of many lightly populated dry areas in the west and southwest. The IWS would evolve over years, as did the Interstate Highway System. We should start building it now. Joseph D. Schulman, MD, a scientist, former professor, and chairman of Genetics at IVF Institute, lives in the American East and West. John D. John P. Schafer, Ph.D., is a chemist, former president of the University of Arizona and chairman of R.E. H.M. U. Incorporated. Henry I. Miller, is a physician, molecular biologist, and senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute. So those are the folks who came up with this idea, and I'll tell you what, I am 100% behind it. One or any of our federal politicians going to start talking about this. It's almost time to run for president, and for me, this is the kind of thing I'm looking for if I'm going to cast my vote for you. You can keep all of the rhetoric, the nonsense, the red meat for your base. Keep that shit for your base, because those of us who are politically homeless, we're only interested in finding a resolution to these problems. We're not interested in your stupid-ass arguments anymore. So they better get on it, and we better start looking towards the future, because if we don't, there's going to be a real big problem in the Southwest, and it's not very long in the making. So hopefully, with this infrastructure they're talking about, one of these politicians will wake up and make the right decision. And that decision will not only help the Southwest and California, but the whole entire nation. If you'd like to contact me, you can do that at bobbykapucci@protonmail.com. 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