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We need a national water grid. I suggested this in another thread and got a mix of responses: - You can't touch the Great Lakes. - You can't steal another re

We need a national water grid. I suggested this in another thread and got a mix of responses: - You can't touch the Great Lakes. - You can't steal another region's water. - Pumps consume electricity. - Grids are a security vulnerability. to which I'd say: - Water would be drawn from a number of sources, and having a grid would allow the draw to be distributed, lessening the impact to any single source. - No one complains that the rest of the US is stealing CA's agriculture. If there is an exchange of funds, there should be no objection to an ecologically responsible exchange of water for local funding. - Desalination also consumes electricity. Shipping imported food from other countries also uses energy(and has inherent national security risks above a certain level). - Insecurity is not an inherent quality of a grid. Poor implementation of our electrical grid is not sufficient evidence against a national water grid. In fact, they enhance regional security by allowing us to cope with climate change and unforeseen weather events. We could draw the water from regional flood control systems and the mouths of great waterways (St. Lawrence, Mississippi, Columbia, etc). We could leverage a larger system of reservoirs for gravity based energy storage systems. I don't know, it just seems to make perfect sense to me. Right now, we treat water as a regional issue and have an antiquated system of treaties and agreements that favors entrenched parties and fails to serve the needs of society.

ChrisLTD 5y ago
That's an interesting idea. I think we also need to consider the possibility that some of these areas experiencing drought might be unfit for agriculture. To put it another way, maybe we should be helping the farmers move rather than the water?
- 01100011 5y ago
  The issue with that is many of the areas which may have insufficient water have insufficient water because they are otherwise so conducive to agriculture. The CA central valley is amazing for Ag, we've just exceeded the (surprisingly plentiful) natural supply of water because we've grown too much. There are many areas where we would grow even more food if we could only supply the water, and many areas of the country where we often have too much water. Why not solve both issues?
  - ChrisLTD 5y ago
    Will global warming change the viability of Central Valley agriculture beyond the increased occurrences of drought?
    - 01100011 5y ago
      One of the great things about the Central Valley is the deep topsoil. Eons of erosion have filled the valley with deep, rich soil. You also have relatively favorable weather, with very few damaging storms(i.e. hail, extreme rain/wind, deep freezes). There is also a lot of existing infrastructure and farming culture. I think with more water available, you could see more competition from NV, AZ, etc, but I don't think the Central Valley will be moving away from Ag in any real sense in the foreseeable future.
mark_l_watson 5y ago
I am not arguing with you, but with the expense and energy costs of moving water over mountain ranges, wouldn’t it make more sense to double down on increasing solar and wind power and technology that reduces the energy costs of desalinization?
- 01100011 5y ago
  What is the net energy expenditure of moving water over a mountain range besides losses due to friction/turbulence? Desalinization also uses pumps and most heavy water users(Ag) are nowhere near the ocean so I'm not seeing your point. Why not use that solar and wind power to move water from areas with too much water to areas with too little water? You could even start with a bifurcated grid which avoids the Rocky Mountains if that satisfies your concerns. There is quite a bit of excess water up north. You could even pipe the freshwater through pipelines sunk near the seafloor. Imagine if the coastal CA metropolises got their water from an off-shore pipeline coming from Alaskan river mouths while the inland water they're currently using stays inland to feed big Ag. If you made the pipeline flexible and used one-way valves, you might even power it with tidal motion.

ChrisLTD 5y ago

That's an interesting idea. I think we also need to consider the possibility that some of these areas experiencing drought might be unfit for agriculture. To put it another way, maybe we should be helping the farmers move rather than the water?

01100011 5y ago
The issue with that is many of the areas which may have insufficient water have insufficient water because they are otherwise so conducive to agriculture. The CA central valley is amazing for Ag, we've just exceeded the (surprisingly plentiful) natural supply of water because we've grown too much. There are many areas where we would grow even more food if we could only supply the water, and many areas of the country where we often have too much water. Why not solve both issues?
- ChrisLTD 5y ago
  Will global warming change the viability of Central Valley agriculture beyond the increased occurrences of drought?
  - 01100011 5y ago
    One of the great things about the Central Valley is the deep topsoil. Eons of erosion have filled the valley with deep, rich soil. You also have relatively favorable weather, with very few damaging storms(i.e. hail, extreme rain/wind, deep freezes). There is also a lot of existing infrastructure and farming culture. I think with more water available, you could see more competition from NV, AZ, etc, but I don't think the Central Valley will be moving away from Ag in any real sense in the foreseeable future.

mark_l_watson 5y ago

I am not arguing with you, but with the expense and energy costs of moving water over mountain ranges, wouldn’t it make more sense to double down on increasing solar and wind power and technology that reduces the energy costs of desalinization?

01100011 5y ago
What is the net energy expenditure of moving water over a mountain range besides losses due to friction/turbulence? Desalinization also uses pumps and most heavy water users(Ag) are nowhere near the ocean so I'm not seeing your point. Why not use that solar and wind power to move water from areas with too much water to areas with too little water? You could even start with a bifurcated grid which avoids the Rocky Mountains if that satisfies your concerns. There is quite a bit of excess water up north. You could even pipe the freshwater through pipelines sunk near the seafloor. Imagine if the coastal CA metropolises got their water from an off-shore pipeline coming from Alaskan river mouths while the inland water they're currently using stays inland to feed big Ag. If you made the pipeline flexible and used one-way valves, you might even power it with tidal motion.