54°-40.
I think one key issue is whether the planners would use a pipeline or an open canal. Pipelines certainly limit the amount of seepage & evaporation but the flow rate of an open canal (like the Arizona and California ones) are gigantic compared to a pipeline. The key issue with an open canal is the problem of freezing since the transport would run from the cold North down to the Southwest.
Evaporation loss is not a total waste as it does increase the water content of the air. If it's a large enough canal it would have a local micro climate effect.
But in 1967, there was another proposal called CeNAWP (Central North American Water Project). 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
In the 1930s, we had not yet used our rivers to their full capacity. There'd be no reason to get water from Canada. Maybe the early 50s.For context the California water system in total delivers 40 million acre feet of water.
Reading the book in the provided link makes it pretty clear that the project is unfeasible at any point once environmentalism has entered the picture. Even dams were getting major protests well before this proposal.
In terms of the USA being willing and able to build this with a perceived need the New Deal is the place to look and perhaps the Dustbowl the hinge. I imagine the USA will have to pay for the Canadian side of things but I’m not an expert in the era. Among many things this is one heck of a jobs program and the butterflies are massive. The backlash could deeply strengthen environmentalism later on, huge demographic and development implications, upended local politics…. What a great find.
Well if anyone wants to do a timeline? I’m tempted just because all the research would be great fun, but the scope and the time needed yikes. Perhaps @Amerigo Vespucci wants to add a new chapter to their great mega project series.
It's remarkable how many evironmental problems could be solved by much cheaper power. I hope solar power does that.Australia goes through this every election/drought.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12...south-assist-drought-stricken-states/10615440
Short version. Pumping costs are prohibitive. Water does not run down a map.
That doesn't apply to CeNAWP. The land between Great Bear Lake and the Great Lakes is completely flat.Australia goes through this every election/drought.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12...south-assist-drought-stricken-states/10615440
Short version. Pumping costs are prohibitive. Water does not run down a map.
That doesn't apply to CeNAWP. The land between Great Bear Lake and the Great Lakes is completely flat.
It's remarkable how many evironmental problems could be solved by much cheaper power. I hope solar power does that.
In the 1960s or 1970s, maybe, but mostly because solar energy barely even existed then outside of the lab (and that mostly in space). Nuclear reactors (especially "lots of them") had cost issues that would make them impractical as well (and not because "no one builds them"; the cost issues were a major cause behind the collapse of the '70s nuclear boom in the United States), but they at least could be built at scale.Highly doubtful, as the best solar cells are only about 50% efficient when the sun is shining and you would need millions of them to make this work. Your better bet for the energy needs of this idea would be nuclear reactors and lots of them.
Uh, the Army Corps of Engineers kind of does that today. They kind of do it a lot, actually, although they tend to rely heavily on pre-existing canals (aka "rivers") to do the bulk of the actual "pumping". See the numerous Arizona v. California cases for one example where, indeed, water is "pumped out" of one state (Arizona) for the benefit of another (California). Also see Lake Lanier and the related disputes between Georgia (the upstream state) and Florida and Alabama (the downstream states) over who is entitled to the waters. Georgia, despite being the state out of which water is being "pumped," has by no means gotten its own way all the time.Any attempt by any government today to pump water out one state for the benefit of another be turned down by the state most affected.