Water, Water, Everywhere and 12 Billion in Work to Do!

It looks like we have a new set of projects in the country, at least in so far as our water infractructure. Not drinking water... No... That is something we're still hosed on. (No pun intended...) There are big water projects to do for commerce and flood control! Here, come see!

Navigation matters, so some money needs spent to keep waterways navigable!

Savannah Harbor, Savannah, Ga., $492 million.

Boston Harbor, Boston, Mass., $216.4 million.

Sabine Neches Waterway, Texas and Louisiana, $748 million

Now that we cover some of what keeps water a place ships can travel on without crashing into the bottom, lets see about keeping water from drowning us all in floods! Where shall we spend for that... Hmm.... How about....

Natomas Basin, Calif., $760.6 million.

Sutter Basin, Calif., $255.2 million.

Truckee Meadows, Nev., $181.6 million.

Springfield, Mo., $13.5 million.

Awww... Poor Springfield gets kinda screwed...but then Obama didn't get much lovin' from Southern Missouri voters, so it should be expected.

Hey, we have Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction!

Morganza to the Gulf, Louisiana, $6.6 billion.

Surf City and North Topsail Beach, N.C., $206 million.

San Clemente shoreline, Calif., $51 million.

(whistles a nameless toon while playing like the last one makes sense somehow...) Moving on then...

The final category you'll have to go check out the source to see everything with. it's Environmental Restoration and does have some highlights, to be sure. So, when you get a moment, check out what it costs to keep water working like water is supposed to be! (Kinda..err..sorta...well, they spend a lot anyway!)

34 projects authorized by water legislation

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

Speaking of water problems, I live in Wichita falls Texas, we are not going to be a town for more than another year if we don't get some rain or water piped in here.

All 3 lakes are below 25% capacity. Our situation is so dire we have taken on and built the largest effluent treatment and reuse project on earth.

We have hit the national news several times and international news a couple times as well now.

I have a plan to fix this, but it would require a big up front cost, but little cost after initial construction.

Texas is on the gulf, there a trillions of gallons of sea water out there, it just needs to be desalinated.

We build right on the coast a long thin concrete tub, dasically about 30 feet wide and say a mile or 2 long that will let sea water in at high tide and hold it, then we build a greenhouse type enclosure over it to trap heat to evaporate the water, and use a geothermal system to cool panels at the top angled to the sides where catch trays will collect the now desalinated water.

Nature will do most of the work here.

Now about once a month we close it down for a high tide low tide cycle and allow the highest bidder to come in and collect the accumulated sea salt( the stuff is pricy btw), we use this revenue for maintenance and power to run the geothermal cooling system for the water vapor condencing panels. We could just make one panel out of every few a solar cell to power it, but this would drastically raise the start up price.

Not perfect but it is a decent plan IMHO.

a reply to: oblvion

I am totally and completely baffled by the seeming U.S. refusal to use the resource we have most plentiful to us on 3 sides. Ocean! I know all the arguments of cost of course..I made a couple myself years back.

However, like you note, we aren't playing games of cost or affordability anymore. Another year or two at present precipitation rates and it won't be 'drought measures' but relocation or trucking in fresh water to sustain life in some areas.

So...what is the deal with largely ignoring a technology that would literally remove water as a resource capable of being shorted within our living futures, anyway.

I know they DO play with it on small scales and local-small regional projects ..but that's like putting up one wind farm and saying it's helped put the U.S. on wind power. Umm.. Yeah.. right, eh?

We're wasting millions to billion on B.S. while we rush toward a very real end point of resources w/o an answer short of some rain dancing or something ...yet still, not on what would end the problem. Call the Saudi's...they seem to know how to keep a population in water where it's not supposed to be possible on that scale.

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

The problem is the folks at the top are so stupid.

It is like they have only one skill, they specialize in being able to lie to and manipulate people, other than that, they are useless.

Here is a proposal from our town council from a couple months back, now remember Wichita falls already has 3 lakes that are about empty, this was the reason they wanted to try to pass a $250,000,000 bond in the exact words of one of the council members " if we build another lake it will fill up"..........

Like the other 3 we have are "filling up" right?

This is the stuff we have to work with at both the local state and federal level, we are fudged with a capital F.

I think if they gave us regular.are folks 1/10,000 the money they propose for anything, we could get it done below cost and it would work right, and it would be the right solution, not just another way to line one of their already filthy rich buddies.

a reply to: oblvion

Umm.. Wow.. Really??

"Build it and it will fill". That is their logic and answer? That is a shame...

I'm very familiar with Wichita Falls, as it happens. If you've lived there long enough, you probably recall the OTRX and later, RBX trucks running all over town for Owens Corning loads. I played that on and off for a few years. It's a lovely little town for where and what it is all about, I'd thought. Nice character.

Ignorance beyond any reasonable belief among city leadership apparently. (sigh)

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

Here's one that has largely been ignored by the media:
mead.uslakes.info...
Lake Mead current elevation = 1090'
southwest.construction.com...
Power turbines cannot operate if the level drops below 1050'.


There is a very realistic chance that the Hoover Dam's power plant could be shut down before the end of summer, 2014. Bye-bye electricity in Reno, Vegas, and parts of northern AZ and southern CA. Bye-bye also to a lot of the CAPP water siphoned off the Colorado River to provide large amounts of drinking and irrigation water to central and southern Arizona.

In other news: Things cost money.

Is that what this is about? The government spends money on things? I'm glad I have ATS to tell me these things.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Indeed.. It's not a pretty picture by any means and I think the endless rush of news cycles has the public generally unaware of quite a lot at the moment. California is a bit beyond mere crisis if they don't get rain pretty quick, and then they'll be tapping more off the Colorado (or try to, I suppose...). That could get messy, I think. This is another graphic to show the magnitude for those not familiar with it.


(Source)

This next one shows a table view of far more water resources and their capacity levels. I think it shows where they've shifted water from some for the continuation of others. Interesting in how that may be playing out in the data.

Daily Reservoir Storage Summary

a reply to: burdman30ott6

wow! Looking at the map, it's very strange to see SC and GA NOT in a drought condition of some sort!

But considering the amount of rain we've gotten over the past few years, I'm not surprised.

a reply to: Wrabbit2000
What's with the offhand criticism of the president?

Congress writes the bills; President Obama just gets to sign them.

You can even look up in detail how that went down.

a reply to: Greven

Congress writes the bills; President Obama just gets to sign them.

So...You figure the President (this one and the last one too, for that matter) Just kinda sits in the White House with no real clue as to what Congress is up to, let alone any word or influence over the formation and inclusion of material into bills?

I suppose we all view the system we see in different ways by our own experiences and perception. Very different ways, in some cases.