As an engineer, here's how I look at the idea of pumping water from Mississippi to the West

[Unca Walt]

I watched that whole thing -- what I specifically did NOT see was any sort of data or mention of mercury/heavy metals.

That is the very basic problem with shit for fertilzer/compost. The heavy metals aggregate in vegetables. I saw no procedure to remove them.p

Think the California Gold Rush guys poisoned by the mercury used to gather gold... or the Mad Hatters of London that chewed the mercury into the felt. Nerve damage.

This was rather blatantly avoided.

 

[Tbonz]

Kick out the 30+ million ILLEGALS you would see a reduction in water usage, from personal use immediately. Reducing the amount of food eaten by ILLEGALS, would reduce water usage even more. Watering golf courses, grass, and the rest comes to an end.

Tell the god damned liberals out west to pound sand, NO WATER from the Mississippi EVER.

 

[Fiat Metaler]

I'm not too worried about mercury or lead in human poop. Maybe cadavers, but not poop from live humans. I am more concerned about pharmaceuticals, everything from female hormones in the water supply to antidepressants.

The other interesting thing about that video is that the poop is being bought by an organic company which repackages and labels it as organic "compost."

 

[Thecrensh]

True dat about Bonaire. There is a single spring in Rincon, where the slaves would walk to every Sunday. The town was founded in the 1500's IIRC. So today, with a genuine population, they have a desalinization plant. The island is a desert, actually... but beautiful. Fences are made of cactus.

Because Bonaire does not allow any sort of traps, spears, nets, whatever, the reef is unbelievable. I have movies where you can identify the diver who is 100' underwater 100'-plus away.

I did some snorkeling in Curacao (one of the ABC islands) and it was amazingly clear with a tremendous drop off about 100yds off short. I dove down to as far as I could go (prob 50ft) and I couldn't see the bottom with 100ft visibility.

 

[abeland1]

The problem I suspect with desal which is basically distillation is the removal of necessary minerals that a healthy body needs.... I wonder do the desal plants add minerals to the water they produce?

I think that is a typical false belief. I have used nothing but distilled water for drinking for the past 30 years. I am now 83 years old, and everything works as intended. Could it be that the intake of pure water helps my kidneys to do their job?

 

[gnome]

At the same time, a lot of our food is grown there in the winter time.

33% of US vegetables
66% of US fruits & nuts.

40% of the world's canned tomatoes.
80% of the world's almond crop.

The scale and productivity of CA agriculture is just stunning.

 

[gnome]

I'm no engineer but I would think desalinization of seawater from the Pacific Ocean would be a better option. Build a nuke plant dedicated to providing the juice for the desalinization plant.

Desal on massive scale is cost-prohibitive because of the energy required. Why would you use the most expensive form of energy (nuclear) to pump water? Instead it could be used to dump excess solar and wind production when CA is in oversupply - grid operators might even pay someone to take it off their hands.

The cheapest way to power the grid is overbuild wind and solar and use batteries and gas peakers for days when demand outstrips supply.
Using that strategy means the grid would be in oversupply of cheap energy most of the time.

 

[viking]

33% of US vegetables
66% of US fruits & nuts.

40% of the world's canned tomatoes.
80% of the world's almond crop.

The scale and productivity of CA agriculture is just stunning.

66% of US fruits & nuts. Are you sure that is all?

What does that leave them, 34% of US flakes?

 

[viking]

How many gallons of fresh water run off into the ocean on the west coast?

 

[Fiat Metaler]

How many gallons of fresh water run off into the ocean on the west coast?

Very little in Southern California, and I wouldn't describe what does run off as "fresh". I posted a separate thread about San Diego using toilet water.

 

[lukdiver]

I watched that whole thing -- what I specifically did NOT see was any sort of data or mention of mercury/heavy metals.

That is the very basic problem with shit for fertilzer/compost. The heavy metals aggregate in vegetables. I saw no procedure to remove them.p

Think the California Gold Rush guys poisoned by the mercury used to gather gold... or the Mad Hatters of London that chewed the mercury into the felt. Nerve damage.

This was rather blatantly avoided.

Speaking of mercury and the Gold Rush: they used the mercury in the gold pan after concentrating the 'fines'. It was added to the pan and because of mercury's affinity to bind to gold it created a 'amalgam'. This little nugget was placed in a cheese-cloth and squeezed to save as much mercury as possible. Being really 'smart' and not having a 'mercury retort' they simply placed the mercury nugget in a slightly hollowed out potato and placed by the campfire. What was left behind was basically a almost pure gold nugget. Then they ate the potato.

 

[gnome]

How many gallons of fresh water run off into the ocean on the west coast?

About 100 billion gallons runoff in Los Angeles county alone. That's 10,000 gallons per person. A lot of the county was engineered to shed water quickly during the infrequent but dangerous storms. You could recharge the groundwater significantly if the focus was on slowing and sinking that water into the ground.

1,000sf roof can catch about 12,000 gallons a year if there's average rainfall of 20 inches in my area in the mountains. Problem is we've been below average for most of the last 20 years.

 

[Unca Walt]

1,000sf roof can catch about 12,000 gallons a year if there's average rainfall of 20 inches in my area in the mountains. Problem is we've been below average for most of the last 20 years.

(*snork*) We had a well, and also a cistern. I remember watching a crawdad crawling around at the bottom of our drinking water.