4 ms·
I don't know if invoking the Salton Sea, which is probably the canonical example of the risks of creating endorheic lakes by introducing water into an endorheic
by nyrikki 2y ago
I don't know if invoking the Salton Sea, which is probably the canonical example of the risks of creating endorheic lakes by introducing water into an endorheic basin is really a good argument.
The Great Basin is North America's largest endorheic basin, and the one large natural endorheic lake, the Great Salt Lake is currently drying up.
Those of us who live down wind of it are already suffering the effects of it drying, and if it continues to dry. Millions will be displaced due to the health effects of Arsenic in the dust etc..
This also ignores other parts or hand waves away difficult problems. Brine from continental scale desalination as hazardous waist can be understood by the challenging problems with data center scale problems as an example.
Also water from Lake Meed and Powell would require serious treatment to move anywhere due to Quagga muscles etc.
Also large amounts of currently productive farmland are already at risk due to the Colorado being oversubscribed and declining aquifers.
Heck, just stopping at the dry lake bed at Xyyzyy would show the issue with trying to use the Mojave river.
While I am glad the author had fun with this thought experiment, the idea is simply not realistic in its current form.
- rnrn 2y ago> Those of us who live down wind of it are already suffering the effects of it drying, and if it continues to dry. Millions will be displaced due to the health effects of Arsenic in the dust etc.. It sounds like you agree with the author that refilling the salton sea and the great salt lake would be a big win… I don’t understand this line as a counterargument.
- nyrikki 2y agoRefilling the salt lake should be a goal to protect existing populations, that is not the same as creating new population centers that we have even greater challenges. Unfortunately curbing growth and shifting agriculture needs to other locations is probably the only practical way. The Bear River divide is next to the Green River drainage, as that is already in a state of overallocation to support SW desert populations, that isn't practical. Pumping water into death valley wouldn't be the way to get water into the the Salt Lake either, and would still have to deal with disposing of the brine in scales gar larger than any municipal supply.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- kibwen 2y agoWhy should the rest of us subsidize the people who want to live in a place that is so inimical to human life?
- dgfitz 2y agoAre you talking about the article or section 8 housing?
- iphoneisbetter 2y ago[dead]
- downrightmike 2y agoThe only thing I can think of that might be a net plus for the west if if we start pumping water from the ocean to the Salton and allowing that to evaporate and creating more greenery where it creates rain shadows.