Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment.

Leg 2 of The Trans-Rocky-Mountain aqueduct. From Webbers Falls to Keystone Dam.

The second leg of the Trans-Rocky-Mountain aqueduct start from Webbers Falls

to Keystone Dam, a distance of about 75 miles that is not canal and 25 miles, which is

Elevation 771′ streambed 550′ 2 turbines totaling 70 MW. Normal water level 727′

There is still barge traffic upstream from Webbers falls, so the water level is still controlled by the canal traffic controllers. This means that the volume of water pumped upstream must be subject to the same limitations that was valid for leg 1.

The Arkansas river flows through Tulsa, and in 2019 there was a substantial flood when the release from the Keystone dam peaked out at 310,000cfs after it had rained 22 feet in a short time. On the other hand, there are days with no release at all when the evaporation from the Keystone lake is larger than its inflow. The river flows right through Tulsa with beautiful park trails on top of the banks, and must be preserved and improved.

The proposal is this: Build 4 30′ dams with full opening gates so up to 250,000 cfs can be released. There will be a power house in each, containing two 5,600 cfs pumps/generators. Through Tulsa build three 10′ dams with the same capacity as the four lower dams. Lower the river bed all over by at least six feet to lessen the occurrence of floods. Since the barge canal separates from the Arkansas River before the first new dam on the Arkansas River there is now more liberty to adjust the pumping to meet the electricity needs and momentarily shut off the pumping when energy needs spike.

The water level above the Keystone dam will be kept at conservation pool level of 727′. If heavy rains are anticipated the water level will be allowed to go below conservation pool level. Conversely, when drought periods are expected, the water level is increased in anticipation. This will make the lake more desirable for recreational purposes to have a stable water level at all times, increasing and decreasing much less over time and with only a moderate daily fluctuation.

The Keystone dam power station generating plant will be retrofitted with dual generator/pumps or pumps will be added to be able to lift 11,200 cfs of water into the dam.

The average flow in the river, excluding flood condition is approximately 4,000 cfs. The pump capacity is 11,200 cfs, the total lift is 236 feet, the level drop is assumed to be 0.4 feet/mile for the 75 miles of aqueduct/river, and a pump efficiency of 92% is assumed.

The total power requirement using these parameters would then be 267 MW. When flow is reversed, it can provide up to 218 MW of peak power. There will be 267 MW of LFTR nuclear power available when it is not pumping up water, so for a short time every day it can provide 485 MW of peak power. The loss of power from the Keystone dam current average release will be about 50 MW on average.

Below is a picture of the Arkansas River with sandbanks. It will have a number of small lakes with about 10 feet of water depth, mostly flowing up river, but gently flowing down river during peak power demand.

November 1, read through the Holy Bible in a year.

Hebrews 10:1-18. This chapter deals with Christ’s sacrifice of himself “once for all“. This is what constitutes the new covenant. and since sacrifice for sins are done away with it means we have the privilege to live in the age of grace, not the age of the Law.

Ezekiel 43. In his vision the Prophet saw the glory of the LORD returning to the temple, the Lord’s dwelling place, the altar and the consecrating thereof.

Ezekiel 44. The East Gate is to remain shut (this is important prophecy), only the Prince may sit inside the gate. Only clean people are are admitted to the temple, and there are many laws concerning priests.

Ezekiel 45. The dimensions of the holy district are defined, the properties of the city and as for the prince, execute justice, live in peace and live under the laws governing the prince, including keeping the feasts.

October 31, read through the Holy Bible in a year.

Hebrews 9:11-28 tells of the much superior heavenly sanctuary into which Christ entered once and thus fulfilled the new covenant. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

Ezekiel 40 describes a vision the Prophet saw that described a new City and a new Temple. It was very detailed and showed the eastern gateway, the outer court, the northern and southern gateways, gateways to the inner court, where to prepare sacrifices, chambers for singers and priests and finally the dimensions of the inner court.

Ezekiel 41. The prophet continued describing the dimensions of the Sanctuary, the side chambers on the wall, the building at the western end and the design of the temple area.

Ezekiel 42. The Prophet outlined the chambers for the priests and the dimensions of the temple.

October 30 , read through the Holy Bible in a year.

Hebrews 9:1-10 tells of the earthly sanctuary, the tabernacle and the Temple with the Most Holy Place

Ezekiel 38. This chapter contains great prophesy with relevance for today of the events in the Middle East. Gog and allies attack Israel but there is coming a judgment on Gog.

Ezekiel 39. Things will be breaking bad for Gog. His armies will be destroyed and he himself will be buried in Israel, there will be a triumphant festival and Israel will be restored to the land.

Why are so many first responders and health care workers risking their careers rather than taking the vaccine?

The heroes of 2020, our health care workers and first responders, who were risking their lives, taking the threat from the coronavirus head on before there was any vaccine are now risking their very careers rather than taking the vaccine. Do they know something that the CDC, NIH and the media are withholding from us?

The world is full of conflicting information and it is difficult to separate facts from opinions and just plain rumors? Being an octogenarian, fully vaccinated with Pfizer, should I take a booster shot, or should I pin my hopes on NIH and CDC approving additional early therapeutics, such as Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine or monoclonal antibody therapy to fend it off should I get early symptoms? Here are early results from Israel in using a booster shot compared to Sweden, also a country with greater than 70% vaccination rate:

For health care workers in their reproductive years one question that is now readily available since they have all the data on adverse reactions from the vaccine, would be: What is the miscarriage rate? Is it larger than for the population in general? Until that, and many more questions are answered I will not even take a booster shot, even though I am for vaccination of people over 45, since the death rate from COVID increase by about 7% for every year you age.

For NIH and CDC, show us the data, we have some data on myocarditis, how it is highest in teenage boys and tamper of with age, but the data on miscarriages are still lacking. Future sterility takes some time to determine, but like with so many viruses, to have had the disease during pregnancy is usually worse than taking the vaccine.

October 29 , read through the Holy Bible in a year.

Hebrews 8. Jesus, among all other things is forever the High Priest of the New Covenant.

Ezekiel 37. This is the famous chapter about the valley of dry bones and how they are coming alive. They shall become one nation under one King.

Psalm 105. God is faithful to His Covenant people, and retells the account of what He did for the Hebrews from Abraham to the wanderings in the wilderness.

October 28, read through the Holy Bible in a year.

Hebrews 7:11-28 tells of Jesus, the high priest, after the order of Melchizedek. Thanks to this, animal sacrifices according to the Law are done away with, and “For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.”

Ezekiel 35 is a declaration of judgment on Mount Seir.

Ezekiel 36. Now it is getting interesting. God proclaimed a future blessing on Israel and the rebirth of Israel. (I took the liberty to put in a few interesting pictures.)

Psalm 104. God is Lord of all creation. He is worthy of all praise. Let us count the ways.

October 27, read through the Holy Bible in a year.

Hebrews 7:1-10 tells of Jesus, the high priest, after the order of Melchizedek. It presents the case for tithing, paying one tenth of the income to be uded and distributed by the church.

Ezekiel 33. The prophet took the role of the watchman and gave a message about God’s Judgment and it’s fairness, foretold of the fall of Jerusalem and the cause of Judah’s ruin being they were hearing but not doing, still continuing their sinful acts.

Ezekiel 34. The shepherds of Israel are not true shepherds. God is the true shepherd. “And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.“

Leg 1 of The Trans-Rocky-Mountain aqueduct. From the Mississippi river to Webbers Falls lock and dam.

The Trans-Rocky-Mountain aqueduct starts out at the Mississippi river, and for the first leg follows the Arkansas River from Mississippi River to Lock16 of the Arkansas River, a distance of 366 miles.

Location of the locks and pumping stations on the Arkansas river.

Lock 1, entrance from the Mississippi River to the White river. The water surface at Montgomery Point has fluctuated from elevation 104′ to 172′.

This lock was added later to better accommodate barge traffic when the Mississippi River was running abnormally low. If the Mississippi is normal to high level, this lock is bypassed. Since we are going to move 11,200 cfs of water over the rocky mountain the flow amount in Arkansas river will be reduced by the same amount. In times of drought, the Arkansas River flow is sometimes lower than 11,200 cfs. To alleviate that, a series of 7,500 cfs pumps will be installed, one in every lock of the canal, beginning with Lock 3.

Montgomery Point Lock and Dam features “first of its kind” hydraulically operated gates. When the tail water is at elevation 115′ and rising, the dam gates are flat on the bottom of the river and barge traffic passes over the gates in the navigation pass spillway to minimize lockages saving time and money.

This lock is frequently submerged. Only the top of the control tower remains above water

The Mississippi river is muddy. When water is pumped up there needs to be a number of de-silting pools, where the silt is returned to the Mississippi river. Here is suggested 3 pools, each capable of de-silting 10,000 cfs of water, one for the Trans-Rocky Mountain aqueduct, and two for the Trans-Continental aqueduct, being built as the whole aqueduct is nearing completion. The top of the pools is set at 150 ft elevation. Should the Missisippi River flood higher than 142 feet the operation will be shut down until elevation is below 142 feet again, and Lock 2, the Norrell Lock and dam is operational again. For the Trans-Rocky_Mountain aqueduct up to 10,000 cfs needs to be pumped up between 20 and 62 feet, for an energy consumption of between 1MW and 56 MW. The map below show one possible location for the pools:

From Lock # 3 to lock # 16 (13 locks # 11 is missing) the Power houses have to either replace one of the operating turbines to a corresponding dual function pump/generator, or add a 10,000 cfs pump.

By removing 11,200 cfs from the flow of water in the Arkansas river, it will be necessary to add these pumps to ensure functioning locks even in times of extreme droughts. The total power generated by the power stations will be reduced by 11,200 cfs times (487 – 127) feet * 0.9 or about 370 megawatts total.

As a side note, every lock opening uses up water equivalent of between 22 and 66 kWh depending on the size of the lift or lowering of the barges. This is constant and not dependent on the size of the barges or boats. When the spillways are in use, the water is “free”, but otherwise every lock opening costs a few dollars in energy, not much, but in case of a drought the fact that water is pumped back up the river will help increase the capacity.

What is in it for Arkansas? The added pumps will give an additional tool to control the canal system. In addition, in the case of floods it will somewhat alleviate the flood control, and serve the canal system better in times of drought. To add 400 megawatts to the system, may I suggest 2 200 MW LFTR nuclear reactors, they are carbon neutral. In addition they have the ability to shut off the pumping of water and let the power plants provide 400 MW virtual hydro-storage power for up to five hours/day. The barges will benefit from sometimes go with the flow, and sometimes travel over still water, shortening the time of transport substantially.

October 26, read through the Holy Bible in a year.

Hebrews 6:7-20 speaks of salvation and hope: “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul”

Ezekiel 30. Egypt and her allies may look strong, but they will fall. The Lord proclaimed that Pharaoh would fall and the Egyptians be scattered among the nations.

Ezekiel 31. Egypt will be cut down like a great tree.

Ezekiel 32 is a lamentation for Pharaoh and Egypt. Egypt and others will go down to the pit.