[Newsbot]

Title: Water wars with U.S. will become bigger issue than Keystone, Canadian ambassador says
Category: Uncle Sam
Posted By: DrCaleb
Date: 2014-02-25 09:38:14
Canadian

[bootlegga]

I think Doer is right - much of the US is in drought situations and I foresee withdrawls from the Great Lakes in the near future to feed demand.

Water will be the new oil in the not to distant future.

[jj2424]

Ten years ago the left said Alberta would run out of water. Now we have no place to put it but in a pipe a send it south.

[Regina]

There are many who thing the US already have a secret pipe in Lake Superior and are pumping it elsewhere.

[Canadian_Mind]

Ever since this first came up, I've maintained the opinion that we should line our coastlines with desanalisation plants and ship all that water south. It's a value-added resource that means Canadian jobs (and american money), it increases our presence in the north, and we get to leave the great lakes, mississippi, and colorado rivers alone.

[Regina]

I've often thought desalination plants would solve much of the water problem, especially in the drought prone areas. It's got to be cheaper than taking it from the center of North America and pumping it west.

[commanderkai]

Regina Regina:

I've often thought desalination plants would solve much of the water problem, especially in the drought prone areas. It's got to be cheaper than taking it from the center of North America and pumping it west.

That's what I figured as well. I always found the "water wars" to be a huge stretch, especially for shipping water to more drought prone areas in the Western US.

Plus, and I'm no expert on water treatment in either the US or Canada (the limit of my expertise extends to Simcity) but aren't we already quite efficient with recycling wastewater from cities back into drinking water or into water that can be returned to nature?

[N_Fiddledog]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/israel-de ... 40695.html

http://carlsbaddesal.com/

http://www.desalresponsegroup.org/socal.html

[Zipperfish]

Regina Regina:

I've often thought desalination plants would solve much of the water problem, especially in the drought prone areas. It's got to be cheaper than taking it from the center of North America and pumping it west.

Desalinization just has a huge energy cost associated with it. Costs a lot to pump the water through the osmotic filters.

[Canadian_Mind]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Regina Regina:

I've often thought desalination plants would solve much of the water problem, especially in the drought prone areas. It's got to be cheaper than taking it from the center of North America and pumping it west.

Desalinization just has a huge energy cost associated with it. Costs a lot to pump the water through the osmotic filters.

I know it gets cold in the Yukon and NWT, but is hydroelectricity an option?

[BartSimpson]

Los Angeles is currently trying to impose itself on Northern California with the misnamed "Bay Delta Conservation Project" (BDCP).

The main feature of this project are two, maybe three, tunnels that will be 15 meters in diameter and that can pump the entire volume of the Sacramento River to LA. An estimated 40,000 people will be disposessed of their farm land for both their water rights and so their 175,000 acres of farmland can be deliberately inundated and transformed into salt water marsh land.

The other 'feature' will include robbing everyone else in Northern California of their senior water rights in order that Southern California will be an equal 'stakeholder' in Northern California water...meaning that in drought conditions people in Northern California will be on water restrictions so people in LA don't have to be.

That latter situation exists right now.

Yep, kicking 40,000 people off of their land is surely going to end well.

Edit:

And you folks would be well advised to keep a watchful eye on Los Angeles because those fuckers have been planning on stealing YOUR water since before 1988:

http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=ft0v1 ... ntire_text

$1:

At that time, and subsequently, I worked with [Ralph M.] Parsons company [Parsons Corporation], a consulting firm, on a major water transfer program. I've always felt that at some point in time there will be, because water is such a vital necessity, there will be a major basin transfer system from the Yukon [River] exchanging water for the Fraser River. No one will lose because they will be using other water from other basins, but eventually the water will be provided for the areas that the people have decided to live in which we have no control over. They want a more temperate climate, they want one that is more comfortable, and that is the reason for the great migration to the Sun Belt and to this area here. And in order to provide sufficient water something has to be done. What's the name of the former director of [California Department of] Water Resources that has done a lot of work in the East, now a consulting engineer? Texas has a problem, and there are thoughts of transfering some from basin to basin in that general area.

[Regina]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Regina Regina:

I've often thought desalination plants would solve much of the water problem, especially in the drought prone areas. It's got to be cheaper than taking it from the center of North America and pumping it west.

Desalinization just has a huge energy cost associated with it. Costs a lot to pump the water through the osmotic filters.

I assumed power would be the major factor but also thought power to pump it thousands of miles would make it somewhat of a wash?
California also has HUGE wind farms and solar power, which seems the likely source for that?

[martin14]

Canadian_Mind Canadian_Mind:

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Regina Regina:

I've often thought desalination plants would solve much of the water problem, especially in the drought prone areas. It's got to be cheaper than taking it from the center of North America and pumping it west.

Desalinization just has a huge energy cost associated with it. Costs a lot to pump the water through the osmotic filters.

I know it gets cold in the Yukon and NWT, but is hydroelectricity an option?

There is a dam in Whitehorse, makes a reservoir from a nasty stretch of the Yukon,
but it's very small.

They were still using diesel generators when I was there.


NWT is too flat imo.

[Zipperfish]

Canadian_Mind Canadian_Mind:

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Regina Regina:

I've often thought desalination plants would solve much of the water problem, especially in the drought prone areas. It's got to be cheaper than taking it from the center of North America and pumping it west.

Desalinization just has a huge energy cost associated with it. Costs a lot to pump the water through the osmotic filters.

I know it gets cold in the Yukon and NWT, but is hydroelectricity an option?

Definitely an option. From a thermodynamic standpoint, it's not that efficient though. Using electricty to desalinate water is inefficient. Electricity is a much more high-quality form of energy than heat. Heat can desalinate water as well (as, for example, the sun does, by evaoprating seawater and dropping it as rain elsewhere). From a second law of thermodynamics standpoint you should use heat, not electricity. The downside is that you then need a lot more real estate, but in a lot of Canada there's no shortage of real estate.

It's like electric heaters--you're taking electricity capable of heating a tungsten filament to 3000 deg and using it raise the room temerparture five degrees. It's like pass me that hand greande, I think I see a fly on the wall.

I saw a few desalinization plants in Afghanistan and talked to some of the guys that were part of the design / operating teams for the Saudi Arabia desalinazation plants--epic enigneering.



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-01/energy-makes-up-half-of-desalination-plant-costs-study.html

[Jabberwalker]

Regina Regina:

There are many who thing the US already have a secret pipe in Lake Superior and are pumping it elsewhere.

Have you been to Georgian Bay, lately? The new shoreline is so far from the old one that you now have to walk hundreds of yards to get to water that used to be at the foot of your back yard. A relative of my wife decided to switch to a jet boat after replacing his fifth prop in a couple of years. You can hear the water gurgling away and it must be going somewhere. The lower lakes are not getting it.