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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Water Pipelines


Does anyone else wonder why if we can have fuel pipelines running in all directions across the country, then why can’t we have water pipelines from places like the one in Missouri mentioned in this article Floods to other places like Texas suffering a drought? In my state of California where it’s common to have droughts we have pipelines from our often dry north to our always dry south. I can’t understand why we don’t run a pipeline from the states north of us to siphon off water threatening to overflow. There must be something I’m missing, because it would be well worth the expense for dry places in this nation to be connected to often flooded sections. In a drought states can lose a fortune in lost produce, not to mention the fire devastation like Texas is suffering through.

9 comments:

Jordan Summers said...

You know it's funny, but I've always wondered the same thing. It just never made any sense to me.

BernardL said...

They could make the Southwest into the Garden of Eden with overflow from Washington State. In California, it would be a produce bonanza to get a pipeline into Oregon and Washington for extra water. I don't know, Jordan, maybe it's all the goofy environmental impact statements they'd have to get around. :)

Jordan Summers said...

I'm sure there's some reason for it.

LOL, could be.*ggg

Charles Gramlich said...

One problem that may be restricting this is that with fuel we control every step of it, determining where the excess will be centralized so that we know where to run the pipes from. With water flow, we don't know exactly where the excess will be. Of course, pipes could be run from natural reservoires I guess, and this has been done at times.

BernardL said...

We know there are places no drought touches, Charles. It's chancy buying a house in Washington State for instance because the mold damage from constant rains is astronomical. We could have huge reservoirs built feeding all manner of drought stricken areas from places with heavy rain. Hell, when I worked in Baton Rouge the damn rain would come down so hard I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. :)

whydibuy said...

Gas and oil are drops in a bucket next to water use.

You might use a 1/2 gal of gas a day but you'll use 30 gals of water or more.

The water pipes would have to be huge to accommodate the demand on them. Something like the "ole miss river is needed.

BernardL said...

All true, whydibuy, but if we can send robot data gatherers to Mars, and ships to the end of our galaxy, I don't think redistributing water tables from flood stricken areas to drought stricken areas would be that tough. Once in place, they could save an unfathomable fortune.

whydibuy said...

" send ships to the end of our galaxy" ??

Hyperbole to exaggerate a point.

Voyager 1 has hardly left the solar system, much less the end of our galaxy.

As astronomers say, if our solar system was a period on a printed page, the Milky Way would be the continental U.S.

BernardL said...

'Hyperbole to exaggerate a point.'

Guilty as charged. :)