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Updating Western Water Infrastructure

Posted August 05, 2015 12:00 AM by Engineering360 eNewsletter

The huge network of dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts in the Western U.S. just won't do anymore. Why? This long-serving water infrastructure, operated by a federal agency called the "Bureau of Reclamation", is ill-equipped to deal with the effects of global warming, the New York Times reports. So the bureau must rebuild this infrastructure into one that can meet the needs of millions more people with far less water. The article looks at some steps in that direction that the bureau could take in the coming years. These include building desalination plants and using climate-change models to design new reservoirs.


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Re: Updating Western Water Infrastructure

08/06/2015 10:50 AM

How about we do the way it's been done for thousands of years? The people move to where there is water; we do not pump water to where the people have moved.

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Re: Updating Western Water Infrastructure

08/06/2015 7:58 PM

What infrastructure? It is antiquated, and a new dam has not been built in California in 30 years, and two are still on hold due to Environmental holdups, after more than 10 years. A couple of trillion gallons of fresh water have been sent out to sea to rescue the snail darter, and it was found to not have worked, because water temperatures, not volume of water, appear to have been the problem. We have more leakage in the pipes between the water mains and the people they serve, in the State of California, to service the entire city of Sacramento for a year. And that is only what they know about. 3 major main breaks a week, in Los Angeles alone, where the average pipe is over 60 years old. Maybe the new High Speed Brown turd will be bringing water instead of people….Forgive my attitude…I think I need to get to the fridge….

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