AHC: Mass Canadian Water Exports

kernals12

Banned
My latest pet project is getting more people into the grossly underpopulated American west. As it is now, only 2 states, California and Washington, are in the top half of American states for population density. The bottom 10 least densely populated states is dominated by the west
40. Utah
41. Kansas
42. Nevada
43. Nebraska
44. Idaho
45. New Mexico
46. South Dakota
47. North Dakota
48. Montana
49. Wyoming
50. Alaska

And I think there is one big factor behind this

US population Density
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US Average Annual Precipitation
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I don't need to explain why water is such an important factor in the lack of people West of the 100th Meridian.

But you also probably know that we do have large cities in the middle of the desert, like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Southern California. That is the product of irrigation. Irrigation has also enabled most of what little agriculture there is in the region, especially in California's Central Valley. So it seems logical that more water means more people.

Canada has just .5% of the world's people but has 9% of the world's freshwater supplies and there have been lots of proposals to use Canadian water to make the American desert bloom.


The most infamous was NAWAPA (North American Water And Power Alliance)
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Drafted by the Ralph M Parsons Company of Los Angeles in 1964, it would have diverted water from the Yukon, Peace, and Liard Rivers into a giant trench 500 miles long from where it would be transferred into the Missouri, Columbia, Colorado, and Rio Grande Rivers. Estimates in 1975 were for a cost of $100 billion ($400 billion in today's money). And it would've flooded lots of valuable farmland and displaced many people.

But in 1967, there was another proposal called CeNAWP (Central North American Water Project). It would've relied on connecting Great Bear Lake, Great Slave Lake, Lake Athabasca, and Lake Winnipeg to the Great Lakes, from where it could be diverted to water the West.

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It wouldn't have required the construction of any reservoirs, instead mostly making use of natural features. It wouldn't have gone over any mountains, unlike NAWAPA. This would've made it much less expensive, less environmentally destructive, and more tolerable to Canadian voters.
It would've delivered 150 million acre feet of water.

So how can we get this built? Bonus points if it's several decades before 1967, perhaps 1937 or 1947, when Americans still had that pioneer spirit and were not too concerned with the environment.
 

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The most plausible way I can see of doing this is to fiddle around with American independence so that the United States and western Canada (i.e., the place where all the water was supposed to come from) are part of the same country, for example because Canada rebels during the War of Independence; even if it doesn't stick with the United States later, it probably does block significant British expansion into the Canadian Prairies, so that they end up being absorbed into the United States instead of being part of a different country. Then all you need to do is have the Bureau of Reclamation be itself and you could probably get some limited version of these plans implemented, the full-scale versions probably still falling afoul of budgetary and environmental problems before they can be built.

Of course, the whole thing probably ends up being an economically wasteful environmental disaster, but there you go, mass "Canadian" water exports.
 

kernals12

Banned
The most plausible way I can see of doing this is to fiddle around with American independence so that the United States and western Canada (i.e., the place where all the water was supposed to come from) are part of the same country, for example because Canada rebels during the War of Independence; even if it doesn't stick with the United States later, it probably does block significant British expansion into the Canadian Prairies, so that they end up being absorbed into the United States instead of being part of a different country. Then all you need to do is have the Bureau of Reclamation be itself and you could probably get some limited version of these plans implemented, the full-scale versions probably still falling afoul of budgetary and environmental problems before they can be built.

Of course, the whole thing probably ends up being an economically wasteful environmental disaster, but there you go, mass "Canadian" water exports.
I don't think it's that hard to get Canadians to sell us their water.
 

kernals12

Banned
I never realized how dry inland Cascadia was. I always imagined Eastern Oregon and Washington to be just wet forest.
 

Lusitania

Donor
I don't think it's that hard to get Canadians to sell us their water.
Sorry but it is verrrrrry hard and water is not for sale. Has not been in past and definitely not now. There were even attempts by Saudi Arabia to fill their oil tankers full of water from Canadian rivers and take it back to Middle East and that got shot down.

Canadian position is that water is not for sale.
 
There is a market, and you have endless supply of water, after reading a bit you Canadians really seem stubborn with not selling water

Sorry but it is verrrrrry hard and water is not for sale. Has not been in past and definitely not now. There were even attempts by Saudi Arabia to fill their oil tankers full of water from Canadian rivers and take it back to Middle East and that got shot down.

Canadian position is that water is not for sale.
 
Once you
I never realized how dry inland Cascadia was. I always imagined Eastern Oregon and Washington to be just wet forest.

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Once you are beyond Hope, it is all dry grasslands and dry pine forests.
Fur babies met and ....... Hope is the farthest east town in the Fraser River Delta. East of there is only Coastal Mountains. Clouds coming off the Pacific Ocean dump most of their moisture on coastal islands, the Olympic Penninsula and Coastal Mountains. Once you get east of Coastal Mountains, land dries out quickly.
ATL I can only see Canada agreeing to water export pipelines if the plane included irrigating Palisser’s Triangle (the driest part of Southwestern Alberta).
 

kernals12

Banned
Control of water may well be the primary cause of imperialist aggression in the reasonably near future.

I'm looking at you, Canada.
76% of our water consumption is for thermoelectric power and irrigation. Those will be eliminated by renewable energy and lab grown meat (most farmland is used for animal feed).
 

Lusitania

Donor
76% of our water consumption is for thermoelectric power and irrigation. Those will be eliminated by renewable energy and lab grown meat (most farmland is used for animal feed).
There are rumors that the American government is going to designate the company “beyond meat” which produces a vegetable based hamburger patty an terrorist sponsored organization supported by its enemies as a way to destroy American cattle producers. :p

It has already rejected renewable energy as a ploy by the Chinese against American oil gas and coal industry and imposed huge tariffs on the Chinese solar panels.
 

kernals12

Banned
More water would also be a big deal for Mexico. You could do land reform without taking away anyone's land, just homestead the new land.
 
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