Remember this day and the question I am asking.

[kelliekat44]

Why can't we as a nation harness flood waters and artic runoff store it and pipe it to draught-stricken areas of the country as needed? Surely we have the knowledge base and skills to do this as a government undertaking, keeping the for-profit corporate vultures out of it? To me, this is a huge national security issue. I would like to stop Keystone and build a flood water storage and diversion system.

[shenmue]

1. Not a bad idea

[lostincalifornia]

2. Do you know where the next flood will occur? Take a different example here in California. The

Peripheral camel was built to move water from Northern California to Southern California where it is less plentiful

[wandy]

6. In some parts of the country flooding is a regular occurance............

Flood dams are built to help with this.
The problem is getting water from areas that have too much to areas that have too little.

[lostincalifornia]

8. ok, and that is a massive project which would have to involve the Federal Government, and Congress

[wandy]

13. Well yes, and that is a technical problem that could be solved........

The difficulty is that we need to solve an idealogical problem first.
At the moment their is a large contingent unwilling to invest on roads, clean water or our infrastructure in general. Hell to better serve the people they represent they are even trying to profitise the flippen postal service.
Fixing what we have and better river management projects, if for nothing else than to deal with climate change, would be a great help to the economy.
We need to start seeing things not to insure that the "right" people can make a profit but as a matter of survival.

[lostincalifornia]

14. No argument from me

[Nuclear Unicorn]

18. Just for consideration --

Maybe if we piped away all the water to more parched locations the recurring floods will cease because we interrupted the rain-accumulation-evaporation cycle. We could inadvertently create a second desert rather than ameliorate the first.

[kelliekat44]

15. And create thousands of jobs. nt

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Engineering. To achieve what you're asking...

...would be akin to building a new Interstate Highway System. Unfortunately, a certain political party has been (for decades) OPPOSED to such public works projects. They always claim that the private sector can do the job better, but the profit would be minimal (AND criminal, since it would deny it to those who cannot pay for basic sustenance) so they would never undertake, or even underwrite such an enterprise.

That's why Capitalism sucks and is, in its unfettered form, a failed ideology.

[Andy823]

25. True

And that's another good reason to vote that party out of office.

[shraby]

4. I asked a similar question a couple of days ago. If they can pipe oil

all over the country, surely the government can pipe the flood waters before they become a flood to areas of the country who need water.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Piping it away at the rate a flood occurs would need a huge number of pipes

An area gets flooded by a large river, and run-off occurring along a long stretch of it. If major rivers were engineered to have flood plains that could be allowed to flood, and then the water taken slowly from them, it might work, but that requires a lot of development next to rivers to be given up.

[Glorfindel]

7. Can't and won't be done...this country has lost its nerve

Can you imagine undertaking the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Rural Electrification Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Boulder Dam, the interstate highway system today? Not to mention any number of other enormous public works that simply couldn't even be suggested today. (Whether all of these public works were a good thing is the subject of quite a different discussion. I believe, for example, that the interstate highways were a huge mistake and that the money spent on them would much better have been spent on railroads...but that's just my opinion.) Nowadays, if a project doesn't involve the military or "the for-profit corporate vultures" (and preferably both), it won't get done. An empire in decline is never a pretty thing to witness. Our British cousins managed it more gracefully than most. I'm afraid our collapse won't be quite so well-managed.

[lostincalifornia]

9. I definitely agree with your premise, especially with regard to this Congress. Don't agree with

your view of the interstate highway system though. Yes, railroads should be used more than they are, however, trucks are also used to transport all kinds of products from one are to another, and without the interstate highway system it would be quite burdensome

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. Because it would require a massive amount of energy to pump from any reservoir to wherever it'd go.

For a start. Anything going from east to west for instance? Would have to go across the Rockies. It would require about a dozen nuclear power plants to generate enough energy to pump water uphill over a distance of thousands of miles. It's hugely impractical.

[kelliekat44]

16. There are some practical answers in physics. And I believe we can develop the technology to overcome

the barriers.

[mcar]

11. This is a very good question

Interesting.

[grasswire]

12. instead of pipes, what about reservoirs and canals?

It wouldn't have to be a federal project -- states could make agreements with other states.

We're all in this together.

[hobbit709]

17. Estuaries need a regular flushing from floods

Upset that balance and there will be other consequences.

we need to stop wasting water on things like high water using crops grown in semi-arid areas. Not every yard needs to look like a lush green pasture.

[lostincalifornia]

19. In California what they should look into is desalinization plants to treat ocean water, and a

pipeline to ship it through the state, maybe else where.

It would help the states economy, and provide much needed water for crops

[kelliekat44]

22. I suggested desalinization year ago and was told it was not practical? Also told it cost too much.?

Novice that I am I left it to the experts...just like now.

[lostincalifornia]

23. Right, the interstate highway system, the space program, the cure for Polio, etc. It sounds like

the government is just plain lazy

Let them justify a few more wars. I know, not a state issue, but everything is related.

This drought is and will be even more costly, and with the way the environment is being treated it will probably be even worse.

I remember when we had the rolling blackouts. We were manipulated by Enron and big oil, but the politicians were up to their neck in this also.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination

As a country we are losing it technological and socially

[Make7]

26. The Carlsbad Desalination Project

[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:1em; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius:0.4615em; box-shadow:-1px -1px 3px #bfbfbf inset;"]The Carlsbad Desalination Project will provide San Diego County with a locally-controlled, drought-proof supply of high-quality water that meets or exceeds all state and federal drinking water standards.

After twelve years of planning and over six years in the state’s permitting process, the Carlsbad Desalination Project has received final approvals from every required regulatory and permitting agency in the state, including the California Coastal Commission, State Lands Commission and Regional Water Quality Control Board. A 30-year Water Purchase Agreement is in place between the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) and Poseidon for the entire output of the plant. Construction on the plant and pipeline is under way and the Project will be delivering water to the businesses and residents in San Diego County by 2016.[font style="font-size:0.8462em;"]


http://carlsbaddesal.com/[/font]

[CBGLuthier]

20. I would think being "draught stricken" would give you plenty to drink

In fact I would not mind being draught stricken myself.

[Leme]

21. Possibly we need great thinking on this

but do we want to take control of our continents water cycle?
-
We have water wars now
-
And blackouts might increase
-
GMO foods and pesticides......
-
IMO, we are lucky we did not go further down the Nuclear reactor path.
-
Do we really want PEOPLE to have that much control over water?

[Blue_In_AK]

24. Former Alaska governor Wally Hickel

proposed piping water down to the Lower 48 back in the '80s, but everyone laughed at him. In hindsight, it looks like it might have been a really good idea.

[kelliekat44]

29. I see great potential for this if we can get our politicians to pay attention. nt

[Andy823]

27. It's a great idea

And I see a lot of good ideas here on how it might be done, but until we can get rid of the republican and tea party in control of the House, nothing will ever get done, no matter who we elect into the WH.

We need to make sure and vote for people in the primaries that have enough vision to tackle this kind of project. We could put a lot of people to work building the infrastructure to make such a thing a reality, and to operate such a system. All we need is the people in D.C. to get their act together.

[spanone]

28. as a nation, we can't do squat