Watching the Network News this evening, -I'm Inspired to Post on something I've been Kicking Around in my Mind. And that concerns our West's Longstanding Droughts and Other Water Shortages.

The Report Talked of a Western Govorner's Meeting held today in Santa Fe, -on the Subject.

The Idea I've Long been Kicking Around in my Head, -Involves the Possibilities of Tapping Into the Great Mississippi-Missourri River System. We all know of the Tremendous Volumes of Water, which Flows just Uselessly into the Gulf!, from Such.

This Occurs Only Several Hundred Miles or so, -from the Easternmost Portions of the West. It's Not like it's Far Off! Though the Further West such System Goes, -One is Beginning to Look at some Distance.

I Think that to the Extent Economical or Feasable, -It would be Absolutely Great for the Water Pressed West!, to be Able to Tap Into this Vast Rich Source!

Of course there is the Matter of the Great Rise in Elevation. Canals, Pipelines, Pumping Systems, Tunnels, Dams, Reservoirs and Other Storage Areas, Branch Offs and Irrigation Waterways thruout the West, -All would have to be Placed into Play.

To the Extent Hydroelectric Power can also be Developed out of this, -Abundant and Cheap Electricity can Exist for the Pumping Systems! Over Time, -the System can Probably Pay for it's Own Pumping!

I Think that Elevation Rises and Pumping, along with perhaps Costs, -would be the Greatest Challenges! But They'd Not Neccessarily be Technically or Economically Insuperable Ones! Some of the Tunneling thru our Western Mountains, as well as some of the Most Major Canal Digging, -Could also Rank High among the Challenges.

Of course one can also Often Make Use of Existing Rivers, Valleys, and Mountain Passes and Gaps, -in these Regards. Though some Pumping to Higher Elevations will often be Involved there, too.

Often, as in the Case of the Already Existing Colorado River, -Replete with it's Already Existing Water and Irrigation Systems, -We Can Take Advantage of Systems and Capabilities Already in Place. If Mississippi-Missourri Water can just be Gotten to the Eastern Colorado!,...-The Rest is Literally a Normal Flow Down that Colorado!

A Feeder can also Go into Northern New Mexico's Rio Grande. Perhaps Somewhere Along the Line, -One can Reach Nevada's Elko. Think of What That can Do for Northern Nevada! And Onward to the Eastward Colombia and Snake. As well as Elsewhere.

Even if a Scaled Down, Less than Complete or Dream, System, -If even Only the Colorado River can be so Reached, -What it Could Do for the West's Great, Longstanding, Water Woes!

Our West is in Great Need of Water even in Normal Times! Let Alone Ever Increasing Dry, Drought Ones!

If but a Fraction of Lower Mississippi Water Flow could be Diverted Westward, -What a Godsend that can be!, -for the American West!

Much can Still Flow Gulfward, -I'm Not Talking about Reduceing that to a Trickle! Shipping Still Needs to Occur on the Mississippi, -New Orleans would Not Want an Infusion of Salt Water, and so on. A "Lot" can be Taken from the Lower Mississippi, -with Yet Plenty Left Over to Spare! We Won't be Losing our Mississippi!,-in that So Much Water Exists there in it's Lower Portions.

Some of our Nuclear Stockpile, (as Well as Perhaps Former Soviet), (Somewhere Along the Line we can perhaps Help Russia Divert some of it's Waters too, as a Part of such Deal),-Could be Used for the Largest, Most Challenging Canal Digging and Tunneling! Such Uses for Canal Digging have Long been Talked About. And are Perfectly Feasable. This would be an Eminently Peaceful Use for Nuclear Power / Weaponry. (Of course Enuff would Still Need to be Left Over, and/or Remanufactured, -For Normal Defense and Deterrance Needs, -Particularly in the Face of Today's New Enemies and Times.)

This would be a Boon from an Economic and Feasability Standpoint too. Why Tunnel Conventionally, at High Altitude, Remote Locations, -When you can Intelligently Blast your Way Thru! Normal Matters regarding Blast Radiation and Residual Radioactivity, would of course have to be Addressed.

Here in the East, -though we Do Get our Droughts, -Water is Normally Plentiful and Taken Largely for Granted! Our Great Runoff Drains Uselessly into that Gulf! I am in the Eastern Portions of the Mississippi Watershed, -Along Three Major Tributaries.

I've Long Read However, -with Sympathy and Feeling, -of How our Great American West, is Often Water Tight or Water Starved! Our West Really Needs It! Our West can Really Use It! I would Not Mind some of my Area's Runoff, -Being Put to Eminently Good and Needed Use!, -Out West!

So to the Extent Economically and Technically Feasable, -Why Not Take a Look at the Great, Reasonably Near, Lower Mississippi-Missourri System!? What that Infusion of Water Couldn't Do for our West! And again, -at Only a Fraction of the Lower Mississippi's Waterload.

Depending on How Much Water is Ultimately Transported Westward, -Perhaps Drying Aquifers and Other Groundwater can be Recharged!

But First Priorities of course are Agricultural Irrigation, Municipal Water Systems, Reservoirs for Forest Fire Fighting, Livestock Water Tanks, and the Like.

Perhaps Some can even Go to Northern Mexico, and the Great Agricultural Areas of the Southern Canadian Prairie Provinces.

I've Seriously Thought of Writing the various Western Govorners on This, in the Past. But have Not yet Gotten Around to it. Today's News Report Gave me Something of a Reminder.

Talk About a Great National Goal and Project that We and our Energies Can Be On To! Costs of Course Sufficiently Permitting. Water to the West! Great and Plentiful Streams of It!

Though I'm in the East, -My Heart is in the West! "There's a Feeling I Get!, -When I Look to the West!" I'd Like to Do Our West a Good One! If One would Ask the West What It Most Wants, -It's Answer would Probably be Water!

To the Extent Economically and Otherwise Feasable, -I Think a Look to our Continent's and Country's Lower Mid-Waters, would be in Order! Water To The West! It Could be the Latest Installment in our Historic Westward Look!, and of our American Dream!
[color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]

As soon as we wake up from the petroleum hangover water is going to be an even greater issue. The ghosts of the Anasazi are laughing at us from their cliff dwellings for repeating their mistake. Every culture has expanded in population to fully exploit and enjoy the carrying capacity of it's particular environment. And each and every culture manages to push the envelope just enough so that even a minor hiccup bursts that bubble. Radical and expensive fixes are at best bandaids; floating icebergs, distilling seawater with the mothball fleet or diverting other ( allready burdened) riparian systems. Water wars will replace energy wars. Many companies are allready buying control of aquafirs, much to the outrage of indegenous peoples. Perrier is about to get it's people killed in South America for such an act of resource piracy. Sorry, but if you read the classics of our southwest from the Conquistadores to Edward Abbey they all agree; It's a desert and wasn't meant to be home to great cities. I expect in 40 years I'll be riding my horses out to visit Doug in the Vastly reduced Pueblo de los Phoenix. I hope my various water containers will be in better shape than me <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />.

In our 7 years of wandering, we have seen a huge drop in water quality in the US. Most city water systems taste terrible. People routinely purchase bottled water instead of drinking from the city supply. When we started, we saw bottled water only in Mexico. Now it is everywhere in the US.

Water systems have been privatized and in many small communities the costs have shot up and the management has become negligent. Many are foreign owned. So the small towns are trying to buy them back, but the systems have been so poorly maintained, (to maximize profit), that the costs are breaking the towns budgets.

Yet we see no real concern among folks. Water has always been there, will always be there, they say as they reach in the fridge for a bottle. My sister pays over a dollar a gallon for water delivered to her door near Chicago. She can afford it, I could not.

I understand that in West Texas, a commercial venture has purchased water rights under rules designed to favor the oil business. So drilling you own well is now forbidden, or if allowed, you have to pay to pump, and water costs are beginning to climb.

Yet nobody seems the least bit concerned.

Oh Gosh!, -Somebody Else Owns the Water Rights in Places! I Heartedly Agree with you there!

On some Areas of Aggreement, and Possible / Actual Difference. You Raise some Good Points which are Well Taken by me.

Much of the Area *is* Naturally a Desert or Arid to Semi-Arid. In such Natural State, -It is Not Meant for Major Metro Areas.

And even if Water is Somehow Brought in Reasonable to Great Abundance to the West, -Your Point about Populations Naturally Expanding to Fill the Area's Carrying Capacity will Still Hold. That may Take Awhile, -Given What Water Abundance there is, -but Eventually this will Occur. By that Time, Hopefully we'll have Economical Seawater Desal Down Pat. Even there, -Other Western Resources can be Stretched to and Beyond a Limit.

There's an Increased to Increasing Western Population in any Event, -Even Without a Great Water Infusion to the West. Which Does, and Will Continue, to Draw On and Drain Limited Western Resources. In Many Respects, -This is All the More Reason *For* Bringing Water *To* the West!

Still, People there will Eventually Expand in Population, -to Fill Out that "Resource Balloon"! As a variation of the Phrase "Nature Abhors a Vacuum!", -It can perhaps be said that Mankind effectively Abhors a "Resources Abundance Vacuum"!

As to Already Burdened Riparian Systems, -I have some Question as to Whether the Water Rich Lower Mississippi Qualifies as Such. True, Municipalities, Metro Areas, and Industry there Do Draw their Substantial Water Needs from Such. But Then Again, -There is Such Abundant Water Volume there!

Even if as Much as a Tenth of the Lower Mississippi's Flow is Diverted Westward, -I'd Think that there Still can be an Overabundance of Water for the Area, to Spare! For Home / Personal, Municipal, and Industrial Water Needs, for Mississippi River Shipping, for the Prevention of Saltwater Intrusion at New Orleans and Other Louisiana Locales. Often Diversion Schemes are a Matter of Robbing Peter to Pay Paul. If Drawn from an Already Stretched or Overburdened System, -that Only Makes such Matter Worse. But in the Lower Mississippi's Vast Volumes of Water, (Perhaps even at one of *It's* Droughts), -I'd Think that the Lower Mississippi's Waters may be an Exception to such General Rule.

We may also Not Want to Draw from it's Very Lower Reaches, -out of concern for the Great Chemical Pollutant Soup there! Or to Adequately Address such Matter if we Do there adraw.

We Wouldn't Want or Need to Draw from such Lowest Reaches anyway. But we Would Want to Draw from at least the St. Louis Area or Below. More Likely Below that Area. St Louis, of course, Marks the General Beginning of the Lower Mississippi. Where it Becomes Quite a Different Kind of River! More Northerly is Shallower, and of a Good Deal Smaller Volume of Water. Drawing from there may Well Take Out Too Much!, for any such Given Area / Areas Further Downstream. But St. Louis South, -is a Different Sort of River. And Water to the West adrawn from here, -I Think is Both Abundant and Doable!

We'd also Want to Avoid Transporting Such Across Colorado!, -Over the Great Colorado Rockies Hump! But Rather South and/or North of Such! I'd Put the Greater Weight, at least Initially, on Going South!, of that Colorado Rockies Concentration! We can thereby Still Link Up with the Eastern Colorado River. From which the Colorado Itself, Can then Naturally Carry such Abundant Water All the Way to the Mojave!, and Baja's Sea of Cortez.

So I Think that Otherwise if Technologically and Economically Feasable, -That Lower Mississippi Water Can and Shud be Brot on over to our West. This can Abundantly Releive the Western Water Stress, at least in some Areas, -for a Long While!

But it Still Remains True, -Even There, -That Man will Still Eventually Expand, to Fill even that Carrying Capacity there!

And it Still Remains True, -that Absent such "Artificially" Propped Up Water Abundance, -However Good such a System is, -The Area Still is in it's Natural State, -Semi Arid to Desert!

Which then Brings the Question, -"Should we Alter / Settle / Build? -Or Take and Work with Nature's Cues, -and Leave the Place Peaceably Alone? I Go For the Right Measure and Combination of Both!

It is in Principle No Different, -Than our Having Artificially Heated Homes up here in our Northern Winters! Absent the Good to Great Artificiality which Heats our Homes, -the Natural State of the Homesite, -is a Far Colder Location!, at Such Time!

Such Extra Abundance, Winter Home Heating or Western Water, -Will Last Only as Long and Well, -as our Artificially Placed Systems Hold Up. And / Or our own Expansion to it's Carrying Capacity will Permit.

So it Sort of Becomes a Question of, -How Much Does or Should Society Keep On Going with Such?! To then Find a New Resource Rich "Something Else", -When the Inside of such Resource Bubble Starts Getting Crimped?

Or to Refrain, Quit, Conserve, Cut Losses, and to Leave Things to Naturally Be, and Alone?!

To More or Less "Conquer" Nature, -or to More or Less Work Respectfully With, and Within it!?

Of course Man's Often Tried to Conquer or Look Down his Nose at Nature! And's Often Found that to be Utter Folly! Mao, for Instance, -Tried to Do that in China, -and Ran Into Mother Nature's Brick Wall!, -for It!

And even in the Best of Man's Artificial Systems, -Nature is Still at Root and Base, -In Control and Calling at least Many of the Shots! We of Mankind Must Remember and Respect That!

But in the Case of "Water to the West", -I Think that it Can and Shud, -Be a Combination of Both of the Preceeding! In Proper Combination and Measure. To the Extent that Such is Economically and Technically Feasable, -We Can and Shud, Bring this Abundant Water to the (Arid, Dry, Droughty, Parched, Stressed, Thirsty) Desert West! But to at the Same Time Remember, -that this is All Artificially Based! That Nature and the Area's Natural Clime, -is Ultimately Yet in Control! But to the Extent Doable, -This Can and Should be Done! While Yet Keeping Mother Nature and Father Time!, Fully in Mind! We Shud Not Shy from Bringing such water Abundance to a Dry West! (To Extent Doable, Again). But to Respect and Remember Always, the Artificiality (However Good to Great!), that it is Based Upon!

Finally, -I Think I'd Agree that there are Water Wars, -or at least Definite Water Frictions and Conflicts!, -Coming Up! I've Seen Several Good Books on the Present and Upcoming World Water Crisis, in Bookstores. As Well as One Written by the Late Senator Paul Simon, on the Matter! Couple that with Increasing Populations and Increasing Resouce Drawups and Pressures, And Climatic Change or Shifts, Etc. Oil and Fossil Fuels Shortages are a Very Real Issue, and Will Continue to be. But even it Can, and I'm Afraid Will Come to Pale, -Beside Upcoming Water Ones! Lets Hope For, and Back!, -Desalinization's Economical Success! Before such "World Water Crimp" Takes Place. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]Chris Kavanaugh[/email]

well it bothers me to think about it, everyone deserves clean water but in our disposable society we forget to think about WHERE everything we use comes from.

such as cattle farms, or fresh water supplies, we enjoy the products they give us but dont worry about the supply being finite.

thats the same as a small childs thinking.
you look for food or something to drink and expect it to be there because its ALWAYS THERE,you dont stop to think its because mommy had always replaced things by shopping and such.
its just the way life was to you, then one day its not there,
it just might never be there again and you cant comprehend WHY.

i dont drink tap water anymore without filtering it either.
over the years when id run out of filters or was just desperately thirsty id drink it, and i usually got sick shortly afterwards.
that and around summer time the news usually talks about the higher levels of ecoli in city water thats SUPPOSED to be treated and cleaned.

people should never take their natural resources for granted.

ok enough ranting, it just bothers me to see how wasteful our society is sometimes.