Vanishing Sea

[Black Mamba]

As silverback51 mentioned, desalinization for california would be a good solution. Though still costly at this point and with very high energy consumption, a viable possibility for the future. Energy usage could be dealt with through solar or wave energy, both of which reduce the greatest challenge desalinization faces.

Something I thought of years ago, and feel free to slap me if this is too far out there, would be a pipe laid down from the northwest, probably the mouth of the Columbia River, to southern California. Submerge it off the coast so there will be no dealing with right of way property squabbles or issues with possible leaks. A pumping station at both ends should keep water flowing. Yes, this is a big undertaking, but any solution we look at will be equal if not greater.

[Silverback51]

All we have to do is commit ourselves to doing it.



http://www.globalwarmingsolutions.co...dification.htm

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by Silverback51

All we have to do is commit ourselves to doing it.

Well, maybe. Solar desalinization is one of those things that looks good on paper but ends up having huge problems in implementation. Desal is waiting for a huge reduction in the cost of power or a breakthrough in osmotic technology. I don't see anything else ever reaching commercial (that is, useful) scale. Just possibly something based on OTEP (not necessarily electric in the end, but exploiting temperature differences), but the massive grids and structures needed would be hazards to shipping, navigation and wildlife while being terribly fragile and exposed to sabotage or attack.

Towing icebergs and running pipelines from Washington make more economic sense - but not much.

[Black Mamba]

Wave Energy is being funded, developed and pretty close to being online:

http://www.alternative-energy-news.i...ro/wave-power/

so if we're talking about offshore desal the main issue is probably the excess salt and of course the cost to build a plant large enough to adequately supplement SoCal's ever growing thirst.

I think Tampa Bay is currently using desalination but not sure how theirs is set up.

Haven't heard about towing icebergs, sounds a little bit like the episode of the Beverly Hillbillies when some scammer want's Jed to invest in a giant fan set in the Santa Monica mountains to blow the smog away... unrealistic and temporary at best.

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by Black Mamba

Wave Energy is being funded, developed and pretty close to being online:

Not to be repetitive, but... well, maybe. All of these alternative power technologies have been "funded and about to go into service" since about 1965... at least, so cover after cover of PopSci, PopMech et al. kept assuring me through my goggle-eyed tens and teens. And twenties, thirties, forties...

It's like Paul Moller's flying car, about to go on sale in showrooms everywhere since... 1962.

so if we're talking about offshore desal the main issue is probably the excess salt

Load it on flatboats. Trundle it out into the ocean a few miles. Dump. Problem solved. It's not toxic waste; that's where it came from and as long as the water is deep enough and the dumping is spread a little, I don't think any human-scale effort could change ocean salinity a meaningful amount, even for short terms.

It all boils (heh, heh) down to a helluva lot of electrical power (or equivalent) or a helluva lot of square miles of solar/ocean/wave/wind power plants. I'd go so far as to say the only really workable option for the foreseeable future is nuclear desal.

Haven't heard about towing icebergs...

I believe it's actually been done on small scale (UK in the 1970s?) It's actually more practical, in terms of energy used, than many alternatives. If you tow the berg to a warmish climate and park it in a giant floating drip cup, natural solar heat will keep the flow of extremely pure water coming without any hassles. But yeah, it's pretty, uh, weird.

[Jamo]

Ron...this IS an interesting thread. There is no reason for bullsh!t to be thrown around by others.

And so folks understand what we both know...the Sacramento water does not go directly to farms and LA...only the peripheral canal or the new concept of tunnels would do that. Instead, gates are opened on the south end of the Delta to deliver water down the CVP canal to San Luis Res. (a holding facility) and then transferred south from there. The Sacramento River water displaces what is drawn from the south.

We also now have the San Joaquin River flowing all the way to the Delta along its natural course, save for a section near Los Banos where the natural course is displaced by the Eastern Bypass for better flood control. So, it's not a lack of water flowing through the Delta that is hurting it. Like I said earlier...it's the lack of quality...salt intrusian and urban runoff. The gates have been shut down by Judge Wanger's rulings (following current law...not his fault) because the smelt get sucked into them...

...which is why the peripheral canal was supposed to be built decades ago...the pumps were devised as the cheap alternative.