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The ultimate infrastructure project: A Transcontinental aqueduct to save the American Southwest from becoming a desert.

The American Southwest has always been subject to drought cycles, some worse than the one that is now devastating the area. Below is a very interesting presentation from ASU about a previous civilization in the Phoenix area, thriving and then gone.

Arizona State University presentation

Will it happen again?

The problem:

Lake Mead will be emptied in less than 10 years with the current usage pattern. Then what?
The hydroelectric power from Lake Mead (and Lake Powell) is diminishing as the lakes are emptied.
the aquifers in Arizona, especially in the Phoenix and Tucson area, and to some extent New Mexico and the dry part of Texas are being drawn down and are at risk of being exhausted.
The Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley of California is maybe the most polluted lake in all of U.S.A. It is even dangerous to breathe the air around it sometimes. The area contains maybe the largest Lithium deposit in the world.
The Colorado River water is too salty for good irrigation .
The Colorado river no longer reaches the Gulf of California. Fishing and shrimp harvesting around the Colorado River Delta is no more.
40 million people depend on the Colorado River for drinking water. The population is still rising rapidly in the West. Will they have water in the future?
Except for California there is not much pumped Hydro-power storage in the American Southwest.
Texas has plenty of wind power, but no pumped hydro-power storage. This makes it difficult to provide peak power when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. Nuclear power is of no help, it provides base power only. Peak power has to come from coal and natural gas plants.
New Mexico has some ideal spots for solar panels, but no water is available for pumped storage.
Arizona has a surging population, wind and solar power locations are abundant, but no pumped hydro-power storage.

The solution:

Build a transcontinental aqueduct from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River capable of transporting 15 million acre-ft of water yearly through Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. It will be built similar to the Central Arizona Project aqueduct, supplying water from the Colorado river to the Phoenix and Tucson area, but this aqueduct will be carrying seven times more water over five times the distance and raise the water more than twice as high before returning to near sea level. The original Central Arizona Project cost $4.7 billion in 1980’s money, the Transcontinental Aqueduct will cost around $340 Billion in 2021 money applying simple scaling up principles.

The Mississippi River has a bad reputation for having polluted water, but since the clean water act the water quality has improved drastically. Fecal coli-form bacteria is down by a factor of more than 100, the water is now used all the way down to New Orleans for drinking water after treatment. The lead levels are down by a factor of 1000 or more since 1979. Plastic pollution and pharmaceutical pollution is still a problem, as is the case with most rivers. The Ph is back to around 8 and salt content is negligible. Mississippi water is good for irrigation, and usable for drinking water after treatment.

But the aqueduct will do more than provide sweet Mississippi water to the thirsty South-west, it will make possible to provide peak power to Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. In fact, it is so big it will nearly triple the pumped Hydro-power storage for the nation, from 23 GW for 5 hours a day to up to 66 GW.

The extra pumped hydro-power storage will come from a number of dams built as part of the aqueduct or very adjacent to it. The water will be pumped from surplus wind and solar power generators when available. This will provide up to 20 GW of power for 5 hours a day. If not enough extra power has been generated during the 19 pumping hours, sometimes power will be purchased from the regular grid. The other source of pumped hydro-power storage is virtual. There will be more than 230 100 MW LFTR (Liquid Fluoride salt Thorium Rector) power stations strategically stationed along the waterway providing pumping of water for 19 hours and providing virtual hydro-power output.

These 43 GW of hydro-power capacity will be as follows: Louisiana, 0.4 GW; Texas, 18,5 GW (right now, Texas has no hydro-power storage, but plenty of wind power); New Mexico, 10.5 GW; Arizona 13.6 GW. In Addition, when the Transcontinental Aqueduct is fully built out, the Hoover dam can provide a true 2.2 GW hydro-power storage by pumping water back from Lake Mojave; a 3 billion dollar existing proposal is waiting to be realized once Lake Mead is saved.

The amount of installed hydroelectric power storage is:

Most hydroelectric pumped storage was installed in the 70’s. Now natural gas plants provide most of the peak power. This aqueduct will double, triple the U.S. pumped peak storage if virtual peak storage is included. By being pumped from surplus wind and solar energy as well as nuclear energy it is true “Green power”. Some people like that.

What follows is a description of each leg of the aqueduct. Each leg except legs 9 and 10 ends in a dam, which holds enough water to make each leg free to operate to best use of available electricity and provide peak power on demand.

Leg 1: Atchafalaya river (Mississippi river bypass) to Aquilla lake, a distance of 360 miles.

Leg 2: Aquilla lake to Brad reservoir (to be built), a distance of 100 miles.

Leg 3: Brad reservoir to North of Baird dams. (to be constructed), a distance of 60 miles

Leg 4: North of Baird dams (to be constructed) to East of Sweetwater dam (to be built), a distance of 60 miles.

Leg 5: East of Sweetwater dam (to be constructed) to Grassland Canyon Lake (to be made), a distance of 50 miles.

Leg 6: Grassland Canyon Lake (to be made) to White Oaks Canyon Lake (to be made), a distance of 110 miles.

Leg 7: White Oaks Canyon Lake (to be made) to the Arch Lewis Canyon Lake via a 20 mile tunnel under the Guadaloupe Mountains in New Mexico.

Leg 8: Arch Lewis Canyon Lake to Martin Tank Lake, a distance of 50 miles.

Leg 9: Martin Tank Lake to Poppy Canyon Reservoir, a distance of 210 miles.

Leg 10: The Poppy Canyon Upper and Lower Reservoir. A Hydro-power storage peak power plant.

Leg 10, alternate solution: Poppy Canyon Reservoir to Cove Tank Reservoir, a distance of 13 miles.

Leg 1 1: Poppy Canyon Reservoir to San Carlos Lake, a distance of 80 miles.

Leg 12: San Carlos Lake to the Colorado river following the Gila river, a distance of 280 miles.

The Transcontinental Aqueduct. Leg 12: San Carlos Lake to the Colorado river following the Gila river, a distance of 280 miles.

Stage 12 is a true delivery of water on demand aqueduct. The San Carlos lake has a storage capacity of a million acre-ft, the ideal buffer from the peak power demand driven uphill stages to the major delivery stage. San Carlos lake is now mostly empty, but will be normally filled to 85% of capacity, slightly less in advance of the winter snow melt. The Lake would look like this:

The Coolidge dam is now decommissioned, the lake is too often empty and the dam suffered damage in the power plant and it was no longer economical to produce power. The retrofitted dam will have a power generation capacity of up to 19,000 cfs the top of the dam is at 2535 ft, the typical water level is at 2500 ft and the drop is 215 feet, giving a maximum power output of 315 MW.

From there the stream follows the Gila River all the way to the Colorado River with the following drop-offs:

Where the Arizona central project waterway crosses the Gila river it will deliver up to 500 cfs to Tucson

Where the Gila river meets the Salt river it can deliver up to 1,500 cfs to the Phoenix-Scottsdale metropolitan area.

To the Martinez lake it can deliver up to 15,155 cfs, the design capacity of the All American canal. This will of course be nearly always far less, dependent on the need for water for irrigation, but we dimension the aqueduct to accommodate maximum flow. The Martinez lake is puny, and would easily be overwhelmed by surges in the water flow. To accommodate this, the Senator Wash Reservoir will have to be upgraded to be able to pump up or down at least twice as much water as is it’s present capacity. Lake Martinez is at about 180 feet elevation, and Senator Wash Reservoir is at a maximum elevation of 240 feet.

The Martinez lake and the Senator Wash Reservoir.

The rest of the Transcontinental Aqueduct empties out where the Gila river joins the remainder of the Colorado river a few miles downstream. It will be able to carry up to 6, 000 cfs of water to accommodate the needs of Mexico and also provide a modest amount of water to assure the Colorado river again reaches the ocean, maybe restoring some shrimp fishing in the ocean.

The 1944 water treaty with Mexico provides Mexico with 1.5 million acre-ft per year, more or less dependent of drought or surplus. It will be increased only on condition that when the Transcontinental aqueduct is finished, the New River in Mexicali will be cut off at the border, and Mexico will have to do their own complete waste water treatment.

There will be water allocated to the Salton Sea. Proposed will be the world’s largest Lithium mine, mining the deep brine, rich in Lithium. (about a third of the world supply according to one estimate). This requires water, and as a minimum to allow mining in the Salton Sea the water needs to be cleaned. This requires further investigation, but the area around the Salton Sea is maybe the most unhealthy in the United States.

The maximum power generating drop during this last leg will be (2500 – 190 – 2.2X 280) = 1694 feet. With an average flow of 14,000 cfs this will generate 1.8 GW of power, but the realized power output will be determined by the actual water demands.

Climate change: IPCC report is ‘code red for humanity’. Not so fast. The Arctic ice sheet and Greenland ice is doing quite well, thank you. A Limerick.

The ice in the Arctic will stay

In Greenland it snowed every day

New white snow, what a sight!

Reflects back all the light

No climate change here, this i say.

Back in 2012 the Greenland ice sheet had an unprecedented melt, and the prediction was that all the Arctic ice would be melted in September of 2015, having reached the Climate tipping point from which there is no return to a normal climate unless we reorganized society into a more totalitarian global governance.

Well, the tipping point didn’t happen, so hopefully global governance will not happen either, even though many are trying.

These are the latest charts for arctic temperatures, ice and snow for August 15:

The ice-pack on Greenland has been melting much less than normal during the melting season

And yesterday’s snowfall over Greenland

Remember, H2O is a condensing gas, when cooled off it condenses into clouds.

Clouds cool by day and warm by night, a one percent difference in cloud cover means more than the increase in CO2.

The only place this doesn’t work is in deserts, if no clouds form Forget CO2, but let us not make any more deserts. The American South-west is in danger of being “desertified” unless we restore the fragile water balance in the region.

August 16, read through the Holy Bible in a year.

1 Corinthians 15:35-58. In this great resurrection chapter the Apostle Paul spoke of the risen Christ: the glorious body and our final victory!

Isaiah 1. No other book of the Bible has so many fulfilled prophecies. Read it and marvel! Use the lists as reference.

The Transcontinental Aqueduct. Leg 11: Poppy Canyon to to San Carlos Lake, a distance of 80 miles.

Stage 10 was a true pumped hydro-storage peak power stage, producing up to 11.0 GW electric power for up to 5 hours a day. In stage 11 the flow will be a maximum flow of up to 25,000 cfs, but with periods of less flow during low electricity demand, all to accommodate both water needs and power demands.

The power generating drop is on average (4320 – 2510 – 80×2.2) = 1,634 feet. This stage is capable of generating maximum 2.4 GW of power during all times.

San_Carlos_Lake is located within the 3,000-square-mile (7,800 km²) San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, and is thus subject to tribal regulations. It has been full only three times, in 1993 it overflowed the spillway and about 35,000 cfs of water caused erosion damage to natural gas pipelines. The lake contains now (April 6,2021) less than 100 acre-ft of water. All fish is dead.

When former President Coolidge dedicated the dam in 1930, the dam had not begun to fill. Humorist Will Rogers looked at the grass in the lake bed, and said, “If this were my dam, I’d mow it.”^[

When the Transcontinental aqueduct is built the lake will always be nearly filled, level will be at 2510 feet with flood control nearly automatic, it will never overflow, and it will look like this:

The San Carlos lake, when filled will hold 1,000,000 acre-ft of water.

The Coolidge dam will have to be retrofitted for a 25,000 cfs water flow

The way India defeated the delta variant of Covid: Ivermectin.

Uttar Pradesh is India’s largest state with over 205 million people. It’s most famous shrine is the Taj Mahal.

News of India’s defeat of the Delta variant should be common knowledge. It is just about as obvious as the nose on one’s face. It is so clear when one looks at the graphs that no one can deny it.

Yet, for some reason, we are not allowed to talk about it. Thus, for example, Wikipedia cannot mention the peer-reviewed meta-analyses by Dr. Tess Lawrie or Dr. Pierre Kory published in the American Journal of Therapeutics.

https://www.thedesertreview.com/opinion/columnists/wikipedia-and-a-pint-of-gin/article_22ffa0d8-dde9-11eb-be75-d7b0b1f2ff67.html

Wikipedia is not allowed to publish the recent meta-analysis on Ivermectin authored by Dr. Andrew Hill. Furthermore, it is not allowed to say anything concerning http://www.ivmmeta.com showing the 61 studies comprising 23,000 patients which reveal up to a 96% reduction in death [prophylaxis] with Ivermectin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AIvermectin

One can see the bias in Wikipedia by going on the “talk” pages for each subject and reading about the fierce attempts of editors to add these facts and the stone wall refusals by the “senior” editors who have an agenda. And that agenda is not loyalty to your health.

The easy way to read the “talk” page on any Wikipedia subject is to click the top left “talk” button. Anyone can then review the editors’ discussions.

There is a blackout on any conversation about how Ivermectin beat COVID-19 in India. When I discussed the dire straits that India found itself in early this year with 414,000 cases per day, and over 4,000 deaths per day, and how that evaporated within five weeks of the addition of Ivermectin, I am often asked, “But why is there no mention of that in the news?”

Yes, exactly. Ask yourself why India’s success against the Delta variant with Ivermectin is such a closely guarded secret by the NIH and CDC. Second, ask yourself why no major media outlets reported this fact, but instead, tried to confuse you with false information by saying the deaths in India are 10 times greater than official reports.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/07/20/1018438334/indias-pandemic-death-toll-estimated-at-about-4-million-10-times-the-official-co

Perhaps NPR is trying so hard because NPR is essentially a government mouthpiece. The US government is “all-in” with vaccines with the enthusiasm of a 17th century Catholic Church “all-in” with a Geocentric Model of the Universe disputing Galileo. Claiming that India’s numbers are inaccurate might distract from the overwhelming success of Ivermectin.

But in the end, the truth matters. It mattered in 1616, and it matters in 2021….

https://www.thedesertreview.com/opinion/columnists/indias-ivermectin-blackout/article_e3db8f46-f942-11eb-9eea-77d5e2519364.html

So, why are all media, CDC, NIH and the government all in on vaccines? This is my theory. When the Covid pandemic broke out, it was first downplayed by CDC, masks were not effective, just keep your distance and sanitize and it will go away. But it didn’t. In February, it was obvious that it was severe, and then President Trump suggested we develop a vaccine at warp speed, meaning in time for the election. Dr Fauci was conducting gain of function defense research at the Wuhan laboratory, so in less than a week, Pfizer and Moderna had a prototype vaccine ready for initial trials. Warp speed means, you test the vaccine as fast as possible, and at the same time promise to buy the vaccine by the hundreds of million doses, working or not. In March President Trump became a promoter of Hydroxychloroquine, and HCQ became a verboten subject. All clinical trials were stopped because of its danger, even though it had been approved for over 50 years against malaria, and used to control Lupus and some kinds of Rheumatisms. It is so safe that it is even used for pregnant women and nursing mothers. The countries that routinely used HCQ in the early stages had a much better disease outcome than countries that didn’t, but it was more important to get rid of Trump than to treat and cure the people. The vaccines are now here, approved for emergency use, and the death rate for people taking the vaccines is greater than could be expected for that age group, for children it is as high as a 60-fold increase. While data for COVID is abundant, the vaccine data is slow in coming. Then came Ivermectin, which is even more effective than HCQ, but it is not approved by CDC yet, even though it is approved for treatment of other diseases.

Then it hit me: The vaccines are for emergency use only, and can not be used if a cure is available. Since Vaccines are highly profitable and Ivermectin is cheap, the obvious decision for CDC is to not approve Ivermectin and ruin the vaccine revenue stream. The well being of the people is of no importance to CDC.

All other explanations are more sinister, so I refrain from further speculation.

In the Journal of Antibiotics a 12 June 2020 report on Ivermectin says: [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41429-020-0336-z]

“Several studies reported antiviral effects of ivermectin on RNA viruses such as Zika, dengue, yellow fever, West Nile, Hendra, Newcastle, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, chikungunya, Semliki Forest, Sindbis, Avian influenza A, Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, Human immunodeficiency virus type 1, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.”

Professor Borody says his research has led him to a triple therapy of Ivermectin, zinc and an antibiotic – which are all TGA and FDA approved – which could be the fastest and safest way to stop the Victorian outbreak within 6-8 weeks. [See Professor Borody’s published research papers ORIC here http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0519-4698]

Professor Borody said, “These 3 medications are already approved. They do not need pre-clinical or clinical trials nor additional TGA approvals unless the aim is to combine in a single capsule, for example. Patient treatment programs have been done in the US and elsewhere which indicate it can work within 4-6 days.”

Professor Borody has reviewed the key antiviral scientific research literature and identified the combination of 3 drugs that are in chemists right now and can be prescribed by doctors immediately. The tablets can be taken at home as a preventive treatment by high risk individuals, or by those who test positive to minimise need for hospitalisation at the higher curative dose.

The therapy comprises:

Ivermectin – TGA and FDA approved as an anti-parasitic therapy with an established safety profile since the 1970s. Known as the “Wonder Drug” from Japan.
Zinc
Doxycycline – TGA and FDA approved tetracycline antibiotic that fights infections, such as acne, urinary tract infections, intestinal infections, respiratory infections, eye infections, gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, periodontitis (gum disease), and others.

Professor Borody says distribution teams could be deployed in Victoria’s hotspots to treat proven infected patients immediately, and people exposed or at risk could be taking the preventative dose.

The Transcontinental Aqueduct. Leg 10, alternate solution: Poppy Canyon Reservoir to Cove Tank Reservoir, a distance of 13 miles.

Stage 9 ended up near the Poppy Canyon Reservoir. It continues directly to stage 11 without a reservoir, but has a diversion point to deliver water to stage 10 to cpmpensate for evaporation and seepage. The Poppy Canyon Reservoir is 400 feet high and will top out at 5360 feet with a maximum water level at 5350 feet. This is the western high point in the Transcontinental aqueduct. This stage can deliver peak energy only 5 hours a day, or deliver the day’s worth of peak energy whenever called for. To make this possible there will be a tunnel and pumping station capable of delivering up to 95,000 cfs when called for. The drop is maximum (5410 – 3690 – 13×2.2) = 1702 feet and minimum (5300 – 4000 -13×2.2) = 1272 feet with an average of 1500 feet, delivering 11.0 GW of pumped hydro-storage peak power for 5 hours a day for a total of 55 GWh/day For the remaining 19 hours water will be pumped up using thirty-one 100 MW MFTR reactors requiring 59 GWh/day. These 31 MW are available for 5 hours a day as extra peak power.

The tunnel to the Cove Tank reservoir is 13 miles long and the power station is somewhere in the tunnel’s path. 80% of the pumps are not reversible, the remaining 20% are, and pump up water for up to 19 hours. The Cove Tank Reservoir dam is 1 mile wide and 250 feet high, containing 60,000 acre-ft of water, enough for 7.5 hrs of filling it at 95,000 cfs, or maximum flow capacity of this stage.

August 15, read through the Holy Bible in a year.

1 Corinthians 15:1-34. In this great resurrection chapter the Apostle Paul spoke of the risen Christ: Faith’s reality, the risen Christ: Our hope, the last enemy destroyed, the error of denying the resurrection, the glorious body and our final victory!

Proverbs 13 lists more proverbs of Solomon.

Psalm 69, of David. When you get that sinking feeling, this Psalm lifts you back up, “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.”

The Transcontinental Aqueduct. Leg 10: The Poppy Canyon Upper and Lower Reservoir. A Hydro-power storage peak power plant.

Stage 9 ended up near the Poppy Canyon Lower dam. The aqueduct will release water to the dams when necessary to compensate for evaporation and seepage losses, but it will otherwise be independent of the aqueduct. The upper dam is 400 feet high and will top out at 5360 feet with a maximum water level at 5350 feet. The lower dam is 480 feet high, and the water tops out at 4670 feet. This stage can deliver peak energy only 5 hours a day, or deliver the day’s worth of peak energy whenever called for. To make this possible there will be a tunnel and pumping station capable of delivering up to 95,000 cfs when called for. The drop is maximum (5360 – 4200) = 1160 feet and minimum (4950– 4670) = 280 feet with an average of 720 feet, delivering 5.3 GW of pumped hydro-storage peak power for 5 hours a day for a total of 26.5 GWh. For the other 19 hours a day water will be pumped up from the lower dam to the upper dam, requiring sixteen 100 MW LFTR power stations, or 30 GWh. the difference is because of the 93 percent efficiency in the turbines and generators. But for 5 hours a day the 16 LFTR’s will produce 1.6 GW of virtual peak power.

Here as always, the preferable power to lift the water will be produced by excess solar and wind power. But when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. the power has to be available. When excess power is available these LFTR plants are free to produce hydrogen, to be stored and used for more peak power

The Transcontinental Aqueduct. Leg 9: Martin Tank Lake to Poppy Canyon Reservoir, a distance of 200 miles.

Stage 8 went from Arch Lewis Canyon Lake to Martin Tank Lake. The Martin Tank Lake dam is 22260 feet wide and 230 feet high. The Lake will contain about 30,000 Acre-ft when full, about eighteen hours worth of storage.

plus The elevation at the Martin Tank lake will top out at 4620 feet with maximum water level at 4610 feet. The aqueduct will first descend to 3980 feet, as it crosses the Rio Grande in La Mesa, a distance of 50 miles. The elevation difference is (4620 – 3980 – 50 X 2.2) feet = 530 feet. Releasing 24,000 cfs of water 530 feet will generate 1 GW of energy for 19 hrs/day. From La Mesa it will climb to the Poppy Canyon lower Reservoir. The dam is 480 feet high and will top out at 4680 feet with a maximum water level at 4650 feet. The Poppy Canyon is special and will be described more in Leg 10. The total lift of the water in stage 9 is (4320 – 3980 + 160×2.2) feet = 692 ft. To lift 24,000 cubic feet per second 692 feet requires five 100 MW LFTR nuclear reactors, plus the energy generated from the early decrease in altitude. The Poppy Canyon Reservoir will look like this: