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Lake Mead water ... What will California do when it's gone??
- Thread starter PPK96754
- Start date
here's my suggestion...
raise prices on water until the reservoirs are back up where we need them
raise prices on water until the reservoirs are back up where we need them
The development of the valley for all purposes was the reason to divert flows away from flooding the vast acreage of the Central Valley.Why is the Sierra snow melt better off in the ocean than on our crops? This is "civilizational collapse"-level of incompetence.
Point of clarification - how will we reclaim water without power?
SD County
The rest of you
The power comes from burning the methane created in the anaerobic digesters that store and condition the sludge that is created during the treatment process. Any time you see gas being flared, you are seeing the waste of a renewable energy resource.
The goal for wastewater should be to power both the wastewater collection and treatment systems as well as water treatment and distribution on the potable side. This is where Denmark leads the world. They have a great model that can be scaled up to meet the demands of our biggest cities.
I’m with you on the rest but obviously letting the Central Valley water table continue to run dry means the valley will no longer be used for Ag or migratory waterfowl or anything else since it’s a horrible place to live if you don’t farm. Strangely the water is being diverted to the Delta which seems to have richer farmers and people with an interest in it.
At any rate I can’t see the reason for diverting water from where it has always flowed. The other side of the sierras supposedly used to be a flood plain for NV too.
There is some very interesting history around water in the Owens Valley. I think its pretty bizarre that its not widely taught in California public schools history classes.
They used to run steam ships to ferry ore across Owens Lake - which is now dry thanks to Mulholland and his amazing water project to bring water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles.
We have a similar bit of history here in Colorado Springs, but it turned out exactly opposite. The farmers of the San Luis Valley were able to muster the legal horsepower to say "fuck you, colorado springs, we will keep our water".
Totally stoked on that as I'd rather eat black quinoa from the San Luis Valley than play golf here in Colorado Springs.
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The answer seems so obvious. We need more artificial pandemics to cull the weak and the elderly?
Read Industrial Cowboys by David Igler for a great history of the draining of the Central Valley.
Seems like we could’ve done something like this to have our cake and eat it too:There is some very interesting history around water in the Owens Valley. I think its pretty bizarre that its not widely taught in California public schools history classes.
They used to run steam ships to ferry ore across Owens Lake - which is now dry thanks to Mulholland and his amazing water project to bring water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles.
We have a similar bit of history here in Colorado Springs, but it turned out exactly opposite. The farmers of the San Luis Valley were able to muster the legal horsepower to say "fook you, colorado springs, we will keep our water".
Totally stoked on that as I'd rather eat black quinoa from the San Luis Valley than play golf here in Colorado Springs.
Chinampa | agriculture
chinampa, also called floating garden, small, stationary, artificial island built on a freshwater lake for agricultural purposes. Chinampan was the ancient name for the southwestern region of the Valley of Mexico, the region of Xochimilco, and it was there that the technique was—and is...
www.britannica.com
Probably not too late. Routing the snow melt out of the valley will turn it into a desert.
Cadillac Desert is the book about LA taking the water from the Owens Valley.
During undergrad, I spent a quarter in an environmental bio study abroad in the Owens Valley learning how LA DWP fvcked everyone over. They bullied locals into selling their land surrounding the Owens River, then claimed ownership of the water from the river to feed into LA. Screwed up the whole ecosystem of the Owens Valley and turned Owens Lake dry, which caused massive air pollution from the dust. Then they rented the land to cattle ranchers, whose cattle changed the river habitat in the valley.
During undergrad, I spent a quarter in an environmental bio study abroad in the Owens Valley learning how LA DWP fvcked everyone over. They bullied locals into selling their land surrounding the Owens River, then claimed ownership of the water from the river to feed into LA. Screwed up the whole ecosystem of the Owens Valley and turned Owens Lake dry, which caused massive air pollution from the dust. Then they rented the land to cattle ranchers, whose cattle changed the river habitat in the valley.
I don't know squat about farming, but my mom's side of the family had peach orchards between Newcastle and Auburn for 4 generations. The fifth generation (damn GenXers) sold the farm. From what I'm told they've become housing developments. Just what we need. More houses less food. Maybe they couldn't pay the bills? Maybe the didn't have enough water? I think they just got greedy.
This thread reminds me I need to watch Chinatown again.
The reservoirs can't hold their design capacity in water anymore because they are old and decayed so they divert about half of the water we have the capability or storing into rivers that flow to the ocean. We also have a lot more people in California than we used to when the existing reservoirs were designed and built so adding capacity should be on the table which it isn't. I guess there's something to this global warming after all.
Anaerobic digesters and methane collection are fairly standard. If they are flaring it's usually because the gas production doesn't match up exactly with the gas fueled generators (a small amount of extra gas can run a flare)....or it could be a temporary problem with the generator being maintained, which happens about every 30 days for a gas engine running on digester gas (they need frequent oil changes due to the siloxanes and H2S in the fuel). With the renewable portfolio standards what they are today and customers clamoring for renewable electricity and every bit of it can be monetized
There is also directed biogas where instead of making electricity on site, the gas is cleaned to city gas quality and put in the local distribution system there, and sold anywhere else in the country. it allows a company in Texas for instance to take gas from the distribution system there but still have it qualify as a renewable fuel even though the exact molecules didn't make it there. There will be a flare at these facilities because everything that isn't methane will need to be disposed of or flared.
color me skeptical but i would love to see a link on this with respect to hoover and glen canyon dams
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Generators running on Methane are pretty cool. I was doing work at the Newtown Creek sewage treatment plant in Brooklyn and they had a row of really big what looked like marine diesel engines there running on the methane generating power. They didn't run their flare much if ever. While re-watching the movie Soylant Green from the 70's I realized that the the place where they feed the bodies into the Soylant plant looked just like Newtown Creek - I think there's a shot of both the generators and the settling ponds - I looked it up and it was filmed in a similar I think 1950's era plant in California.
