[BartSimpson]

uwish uwish:

desalinization is a good idea however, California is already suffering from 'brown outs' and these plants require MASSIVE energy.

Then we can build wind farms and nuclear plants to provide the power or, better yet, we can tell the fools in Southern California to stop expanding their massive city in the desert.

[DerbyX]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

DerbyX DerbyX:

Why the hell isn't the US investing in desalinization plants? It completely removes any need of foreign water sources and the political problem it poses. In fact developing desalinization is the only real hope for long term water development anywhere since there is a limited amount of fresh water but unlimited sea water.

Because there are too many power-hungry rat ba*tards involved in the politics of land development who see the transport of water as a very effective means of political power. If people desalinated their water then whole layers of political power would be erased.

Think of how the British prohibited the Indians from making their own salt because the control of salt meant political power for Imperial Britain. The same goes with water, if people control their own water then some SOB won't be able to control it and use it to get votes or to make political deals.

The thing with Southern California is that they built the LA Metroplex in a freaking desert so you've got near 30 million people dependent on water from remote sources and those people vote for whoever keeps their lawns green and their swimming pools full. The additional thing is you have layers of government addicted to development money and they're looking at losing some $1 trillion to $2 trillion in tax revenues over the next 50 years unless they can find more water to support new development. But if the use desalinisation instead of transport they lose votes because then water becomes just another utility instead of a precious commodity. So long as water is relatively scarce in LA, the thugs can maintain their political power. Once the genie of desalinisation starts then water becomes plentiful and the power behind it evaporates.

It's about power. And the people in LA don't care who they screw to maintain this power.

I don't quite understand the rationale behind this. Building a desalinization plant and then selling the water seems to me no different then selling electricity. Hell I'm surprised private companies haven't started doing this in greater scale unless of course it simply isn't cost effective. Of course the oil sands weren't either and given the US water needs it seems not only smart but in the nations interest to develop the technology before it becomes critical.

Is the US going to allow Canada to control so much of its water and oil supply?

[DrCaleb]

DerbyX DerbyX:

Is the US going to allow Canada to control so much of its water and oil supply?

As Bart has been telling us for years, don't trust the US when it comes to water.

If bulk water exports were allowed, overnight I'd expect to see a US based water company created whose sole purpose would be to build a pipeline to drain lakes and ship the water south to water lawns and wash cars. Then we would no longer be in control of our water.

[BartSimpson]

DerbyX DerbyX:

Is the US going to allow Canada to control so much of its water and oil supply?

No. The US (meaning Southern California, mostly) will use every filthy trick they know to take control of your water to the point that they'll make YOU pay more for Canadian water to make sure that they always get their share.

Sacramento, for instance, never had water meters because we sit at the confluence of two rivers and Sacramento has seniority water rights dating back to the Spanish land grant that created the city in the first place. Now Los Angeles rammed through a law in the Legislature to require water meters in Sacramento, they took away our seniority rights, and now we are looking at the very real potential for water rationing even when the resevoirs are full because Los Angeles is guaranteed an ever-increasing amount of our water.

They're also working to seize 175,000 acres of land in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta under the guise of 'habitat restoration'. This means the farms will be deliberately inundated with salt water and their fresh water allotments will be sent to LA.

http://baydeltaconservationplan.com/default.aspx

Look at this page and you'll see that 'habitat restoration' is just a guise for building two canals to take more water to LA and the 'habitat restoration' gets irksome farmers and small towns out of the way of the LA water interests.

http://baydeltaconservationplan.com/BDC ... oMaps.aspx

And this is ABSOLUTELY what Canada can look forward to if this UN thing passes.

[Chumley]

Perhaps you could kill two birds in one stone by using a tidal hydro electricity plant to power the desalination plant.

[BartSimpson]

Chumley Chumley:

Perhaps you could kill two birds in one stone by using a tidal hydro electricity plant to power the desalination plant.

The point is that if water from the ocean were available it would erode political power for the entrenched elites in Los Angeles. They're not interested in any solution that reduces their control of water as a commodity.

[andyt]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

No. The US (meaning Southern California, mostly) will use every filthy trick they know to take control of your water to the point that they'll make YOU pay more for Canadian water to make sure that they always get their share.

Sacramento, for instance, never had water meters because we sit at the confluence of two rivers and Sacramento has seniority water rights dating back to the Spanish land grant that created the city in the first place. Now Los Angeles rammed through a law in the Legislature to require water meters in Sacramento, they took away our seniority rights, and now we are looking at the very real potential for water rationing even when the resevoirs are full because Los Angeles is guaranteed an ever-increasing amount of our water.

They're also working to seize 175,000 acres of land in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta under the guise of 'habitat restoration'. This means the farms will be deliberately inundated with salt water and their fresh water allotments will be sent to LA.

http://baydeltaconservationplan.com/default.aspx

Look at this page and you'll see that 'habitat restoration' is just a guise for building two canals to take more water to LA and the 'habitat restoration' gets irksome farmers and small towns out of the way of the LA water interests.

http://baydeltaconservationplan.com/BDC ... oMaps.aspx

And this is ABSOLUTELY what Canada can look forward to if this UN thing passes.

"What are you going to do, Jake, it's Chinatown."

[BartSimpson]

andyt andyt:

"What are you going to do, Jake, it's Chinatown."

Me, I'm not doing anything. But for the people in LA assume that the 40,000 farmers and their families who will be displaced and financially broken due to this grand scheme will do nothing is the height of hubris.

Pissing off people who buy fuel oil by the tank load and ammonium nitrate by the train load is *never* a smart thing to do.

[KorbenDeck]

Anything that forces Canada to sell its water is a big no no to me.

[BartSimpson]

KorbenDeck KorbenDeck:

Anything that forces Canada to sell its water is a big no no to me.

Time to write to your MP and say, "NFW!!!"

[herbie]

$1:

Los Angeles is *currently* trying to get BC Hydro to let them build a dam on the Fraser River behind Vancouver with the deal that BC Hydro gets the electricity and LA gets the water via a neoprene aqueduct to be laid down on the ocean floor (yes, this is for real - Palin defeated the LA plan to do this on the Yukon River in Alaska).

Is LA full of arrogant cocksuckers who've never looked at a map? He asks facetiously, well aware of similar 'plans' in the 70s to flood BC's entire Rocky Mountain Trench.
LA can have all the water it wants. In bottles, filled by Canadians.

[Bacardi4206]

They should have prioritised it and tryi to find solutions for there problem. Instead of letting it happen than blaming the west for being luckier than them and for not bailing them out all the time.

Build wells, look for sources of water. If anything, get your government to buy water. You know, that whole priority thing. Where they buy water instead of guns and luxury palaces. That whole bit.

or how about this, we give the poor countries part of our water supply. Enough to sustain them. We will call it "Water as Human Right" or w/e they want. In exchange they give us all there land and everything that happens to be on it. We can call it "Land as Human Right". Though doubt they would go for that, as it would always generally be "Whatever as Human Right" only for the things they require and not what other require from them.

[gonavy47]

Now the "Blue Planet Gang" want the UN to be able to redistribute OUR natural resources? No way!

[hurley_108]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

uwish uwish:

desalinization is a good idea however, California is already suffering from 'brown outs' and these plants require MASSIVE energy.

Then we can build wind farms and nuclear plants to provide the power or, better yet, we can tell the fools in Southern California to stop expanding their massive city in the desert.

Wind for desal might be a good application of that form of energy. If you have a big enough tank, and enough windmills, you can just make water when you have the power and store it for when you don't. It's a lot easier to store water than electrical energy.