Author: Wayne Meulendyk

Abstract:

Active Climate Rescue Initiative (ACRI) has identified a root cause for the mega-drought and has a solution designed to break the drought by repairing the cause. The solution is to install “Move the Water!” in three locations in SW-North America. This will fix a broken water-cycle and bring rain back to parched lands.

Introduction

It is the consensus at ACRI is that the SW-USA Mega-Drought is a direct result of man’s interference in the Colorado River Hydrologic Cycle. Entities have been removing water from the Colorado River Watershed since 1894 (1) which has broken the local Water Cycle. The good news is that it can be fixed.

Moving Water

Moving freshwater within a watershed has few negative effects. The water is recirculated within its watershed and used over and over. As an example, water removed from a river to irrigate an adjacent field, flows onto the field and into the ground whereby it slowly returns to the river.

Moving freshwater out of its watershed always creates unintended consequences. The obvious negative effect is that the water is not recirculated within the watershed. Once the water is removed from the river it is gone. If enough water is removed the river could run dry before it reaches its terminus.

Moving oceanwater out of the ocean does not harm the ocean and has more positive effects than negative in its new location. The positive effects include local cooling and increased rainfall. The negative effect is that a terminal pool will become hypersaline, which could be turned positive, managed, or ignored if in the right location.  

Colorado River Water

Americans have been sucking water out of the Colorado River for over a hundred years. In the 19^th Century the Colorado River flow into Mexico was nearly 1af (acre-feet) per second (3) but has been diminishing ever since. The decreased flow into Mexico was codified by the Colorado River Compact of 1922. In the subsequent years the “Law of the River” agreements and treaties have been codified and implemented with the result of the Colorado River water being divided among seven States and Mexico. Mexico now has only 1/10^th of the flow, and the river has not naturally flowed to the sea since 1998 (3). Also of note is that Laguna Salada has been dry since 1999, and the Mega-Drought began in 2000 (5).

The Colorado River gets its water from multiple sources, but the one we are focusing on is the moisture flow from Mexico. Oversimplified, this water cycle begins at Laguna Salada, Baja, MX. The water evaporates from Laguna Salada and blows north to the Salton Sea, from where it evaporates and blows north into Death Valley, from where it quickly evaporates and finds its way to the Great Salt Lake. The evaporation from the Great Salt Lake blows north and feeds the Colorado River and then flows south to refill Laguna Salada, whereby the process starts anew. 

ACRI acknowledges that the Colorado River water is being used profitably and the uses are righteous. The resolution needs to be from an alternate source if the beneficiaries are to continue to receive their water. This is where the Move the Water! initiative comes into play. Move the Water! suggests using ocean water to repair the broken water cycle. This is to be done in three pieces.

Repair The Broken Water Cycle

First

Ocean water will be allowed to flow into Laguna Salada and refill that inland sea. Remember that Laguna Salada (English = Salt Marsh) has always had salt water. Occasionally a high tide will naturally flow ocean water into Laguna Salada. To accomplish the refilling of Laguna Salada the existing dry Coyote Canal must be dredged, deepened, and widened so that its flow is reversed, allowing ocean water to inundate Laguna Salada, keeping it full. This alone will begin to break the mega-drought.

Second

The Coyote Canal can be extended from Laguna Salada into the USA, terminating in the Salton Sea, with the flow metered to maintain Salton Sea at its historic optimum fill level. The flowthrough of ocean water will inhibit Laguna Salada from becoming hypersaline. Also remember that the SALTon Sea has been salt water for many years, so adding salted water is not an ecologic disaster. In fact, the addition of ocean water will lower the salt concentration in the Salton Sea. But something else still needs to be done so that the Salton Sea is not the terminus pool, or it will again become hypersaline.

Third

The hardest and most expensive piece of this puzzle is still needed. This piece will certainly end the mega-drought and assure an increased Colorado River flow. Pipes and pumps, enough to transport 15maf (million acre-feet) of ocean water annually (0.5af/second) into Death Valley. This is an amount equal to the amount of freshwater annually extracted from the Colorado River.

How this Works

It is important to remember that water cannot directly be added into the Colorado River Watershed. Adding freshwater will disrupt some other watershed and cause additional unintended consequences. Adding oceanwater will contaminate the watershed with salt. The water must be added indirectly through the cleansing process of evaporation. This can be done in this region with minimal negative effect.

This is a replacement, gallon per gallon, for the freshwater being removed. By importing the ocean water into Death Valley, the water can be converted to freshwater via evaporation, the salt and other contaminants will be left on the floor of Death Valley, a floor which is already heavily salted (6). The freshwater will be transported to the Colorado River Watershed within the atmosphere to the headwaters of the Colorado River via normal wind currents, which along the way will rehydrate the Great Basin.

This is expensive but remember that the Colorado River water must come from someplace, and because of the broken water cycle it obviously is not coming anymore. If humans are to continue to benefit from the Colorado River freshwater, then humans must repair the water cycle and break the mega-drought.

Terraforming

Consider this a terraforming project. Much effort is being expended to explore Mars and search Mars for some hint of water in hopes of terraforming Mars for human use. This is a much easier terraforming project. If we cannot accomplish this simple installation, how can we even think of the larger Mars project, and then why are we spending cash on contemplating/studying that concept? Let’s get this done here on Earth first and prove that man can beneficially change the weather. Then we can think of doing similar projects on distant planets.

How To Fund

So how do we pay for this project, for the ongoing cost of pumping all that ocean water? As always, the best plan is to bill the entities who are benefitting from the project/service. Each state/city who extracts water from the Colorado River should be assessed a per-gallon-fee equal to the cost of pumping a gallon into Death Valley. The US Government Bureau of Reclamation (4) is already in place to coordinate this assessment and the daily operation/maintenance of the equipment.

Paying for these projects fits right into the US Government’s plans. They are pushing infrastructure projects to create jobs and they wish to accomplish things which will aid in healing the climate. This is a win-win for them and a win for America in many ways.

A Win For America

It will be a win for America in many ways.

1. This will directly affect Global Warming by cooling some of the hottest places in America.
2. This will increase the rainfall, effectively rehydrating some of America’s largest deserts.
3. The native peoples who reside in these deserts and who are struggling for water will have it more abundantly available.
4. Parts of America which are now too arid for farming will be available for new fields.
5. Although the goal here is to return water to the Colorado River Watershed, the headwaters of the Snake River will also be benefited.
6. The construction project will stimulate the local economy by bringing in jobs.
7. The ongoing operation will keep some local jobs.  

References

(1) https://waterknowledge.colostate.edu/water-history/#:~:text=In%201894%2C%20the%20Grand%20River%20Ditch%20became%20the,its%20tributaries%20to%20farmlands%20along%20the%20Poudre%20River.

(2) https://lao.ca.gov/1997/101697_colorado_river/101697_colorado_river.html

(3) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/21/the-lost-river-mexicans-fight-for-mighty-waterway-taken-by-the-us

(4) https://www.usbr.gov/

(5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwestern_North_American_megadrought#:~:text=The%20southwestern%20North%20American%20megadrought%20is%20an%20ongoing,Mead%2C%20the%20largest%20reservoir%20in%20the%20United%20States.

(6) https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/nature/salt-flats.htm

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Flooding Desert Depression

Move the Water! premise:

The flooding of a dry depression would cause increase in atmospheric moisture and a decrease in local temperature.

Study Conducted:

In 1983 a group of scientists created a computer simulation model to conduct a preliminary evaluation of the mesoscale(1) climatic changes due to a deliberate flooding of the Qattara depression in Egypt during a summer season.(2)

Conclusion:

Considerable environmental changes could be expected if the Qattara depression were converted to an inland sea. There would be changes in moisture and temperature patterns as well as horizontal and vertical winds.

(1) Mesoscale: Of or relating to a meteorological phenomenon approximately 10 to 1000 kilometers in horizontal extent.

(2) Title: Climatic changes due to a deliberate flooding of the Qattara depression (Egypt). Article Bib No.: 305744. Authors: Segal, M.; Pielke, R.A.; Mahrer, Y. Publication: Climatic Change; VOL. 5 NO. 1, 1983; pp.73-83. Language: English. Geographical Area: Egypt.

Temperature/Rainfall Correlation

Move the Water! premise:

Local rain decreases local temperature.

Study Conducted:

In 2013 Douglas J Cotton did a correlative study analyzing temperature and rainfall data for 15 cities which were carefully selected to eliminate tangential variables. (3)

Conclusion:

Water vapor does in fact appear to have the cooling effect.

(3) Title: Planetary Core and Surface Temperatures; Chapter 17. Appendix – Study of Temperature/Rainfall Correlation. Author: Cotton, D.J. Publication: SERN Electronic Journal; January 2013. Language: English. Geographic Location: Select towns and cities between the Equator to the Tropic of Capricorn (at about 23.5° South).

Help Reverse Climate Change

Your small donation to Active Climate Rescue Initiative will help reverse Global Warming. Reversing Global Warming and stopping Climate Change is our only goal, and we know how to do it. Your support will allow us to broadcast our message and save the world. Someone must do it. Be part of the someone. Donate today.

In your recently published: WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2019; I read…

P. Taalas, WMO Secretary-General stated (pg. 3):

… sea levels are rising at an increasing pace, through greater warming of the oceans, on the surface and in the depths, and through the enhanced melting of Greenland’s ice and of glaciers,… The results of this report demonstrate that climate change is already very visible in various ways. More ambitious climate mitigation efforts are needed to keep the warming below 2 °C by the end of the century.

A Guterres, UN Secretary-General stated (pg. 4):

Time is fast running out for us to avert the worst impacts of climate disruption….  The consequences are already apparent. More severe and frequent floods, droughts and tropical storms, dangerous heatwaves and rising sea levels are already severely threatening lives and livelihoods across the planet…. we need political will and urgent action to set a different path. This report outlines the latest science and illustrates the urgency for far-reaching climate action.… I call on everyone … to heed these facts and take urgent action to halt the worst effects of climate change.  We need more ambition on mitigation,… That is the only way to ensure a safer, more prosperous and sustainable future for all people on a healthy planet.

WMO Provisional Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2019 by World Meteorological Organization

Urgent Action Encouraged

Both of these gentlemen call for more ambitious climate mitigation efforts and urgent action, yet nowhere is this report is any consideration for the one solution which is proactive, clean and simple, inexpensive, and will have immediate and continuing results, the Active Climate Rescue Initiative: Move the Water!

Move the Water! is Proactive

One of the concerns of the rising ocean levels is the inundation of dry land with ocean water. The Move the Water! initiative is to do just that, in select places. There exist several places around our world which are dry and below sea-level. Theoretically these places could become flooded with the natural ocean rise, but only after the ocean level has caused trouble for multiple cities and islands. By direct human intervention these dry holes can be filled with ocean water; immediately decreasing the ocean levels.

Places on land with elevations below sea level by Science Gyan

Move the Water! is Clean and Simple

In every instance the task of moving the water is as simple as providing and open gravity flow water path from the ocean to the depression. Once the path is provided, no more energy is used to move the water.

Trench digging machine to dig large canals by Best Innovation Technology

Move the Water! will Have Immediate Results

Immediately on completion of the first project, the ocean level will be reduced; just a little bit, but every little bit helps. Further reductions come with the completion of each successive project. 

Move the Water! will Have Continuing Benefits

Continuing Benefits – Drawdown of Ocean Levels

The water is being moved into dry depressions in deserts. These places are windy, dry and hot. The water deposited in the depressions will evaporate. As the water evaporates the ocean will have further and continuous drawdown as long as an open flow water path is maintained. This simple science. In the below video this is communicated by children in less than 3 minutes.  

How Does Water Evaporate? By Plumb Landing of PBS

Continuing Benefits – Evaporative Micro-Climate Cooling

As the water evaporates, the local environment is cooled by a small amount. These micro-cooling occurrences have global effect. Cooling by evaporation is simple science which we experience in our daily lives and is demonstrated in the below video.

Evaporation causes cooling by KClassScienceChannel

Continuing Benefits – Evaporated Moisture Returns as Rain

As the old saying goes: What goes up must come down. That is the case with evaporation. The water which escapes into the atmosphere returns as rain, mist and in some cases snow. Again, this is simple science that even children can understand as demonstrated in the below video.

How to Make Rain by Ryan Cragun

Continuing Benefits – Rain Cleans the Air

In desert areas there is much dust in the air. The rain will eliminate some of this dust, bringing it back to soil.

Rain’s Dirty Little Secret by MinuteEarth

Continuing Benefits – Returning Rain Cools

The rain cools the air and ground in the area. Again the local environment is micro-cooled by a small amount with global benefit. Think how nice rain feels on a hot day.

Continuing Benefits – Rain Brings Plant Growth

Plants in many places lie dormant waiting for local rains. With the newly formed inland sea, rain will fall more consistently, and the plants will thrive. The below video displays some remarkable plant growth in arid places.   

Plant growth of tropical flowers in the desert by David Attenborough, BBC Studios

Continuing Benefits – Plants Evaporate Moisture Too

Part of the plant photosynthesis process returns water into the air, which is then joined with the other evaporated moisture to bring life to the desert.

Which Came First – The Rain or the Rainforest? By MinuteEarth

Continuing Benefits – Plants Are Natural Air Conditioners

On a hot day, where do you stand? In the direct sun or under a tree? The environment is much cooler under the tree. Initially because you are not in direct sunlight. But the second reason is because the plant is causing cooling. The plant releases moisture during photosynthesis which causes the air to cool. The cool air sinks (hot air rises) to the space under the tree creating a nice bubble of cool. The below video expands the plant cooling to a level where it helps reverse global Warming.

Water Evaporated from Trees Cools Global Climate by Carnegie Science

Continuing Benefits – Plants Eat CO2 for Lunch

Plants are natural carbon syncs. They pull the carbon out of the air and convert it into the building blocks for their plant bodies. Once trapped in the plant, it stays there until the plant is burned (mostly), even if the plant dies and decomposes into soil, the carbon remains then in the soil. The first 40 seconds of the below video explain how plants absorb carbon from the air.

How Much Air Can A Tree Hold? By MinuteEarth

Continuing Benefits – Plants Cool Soil

The shade of the plants cools the ground. This cooler ground will allow water to be absorbed into it and to fill underground held aquifers. The water held in the ground is good for drinking and many other uses. The water in the aquifers is water which is not immediately returned to the ocean. It may stay in the underground aquifer for many years before it is extracted. The below video touches on the ground water phenomena.  

Water Cycle by It’s Aumsum Time

Continuing Benefits – The Cycle Repeats Itself Downwind

There is discussion of Domino Droughts. Active Climate Rescue Initiative posits that implementing the Move the Water!, a reverse action can be initiated: Domino Rehydration. This process can rehydrate the Great Basin and the whole of the SW USA desert, or Africa’s Sahara. Imagine the global benefit if the Sahara were green.

Move the Water! is Inexpensive

When considering the cost of many proposed options. When considering the huge taxation systems desired by many for exchanging carbon credits. When considering the great canals built by California and others to relocate fresh water for human consumption. The cost of Move the Water! is a literal drop in the bucket.

Call to Action

The WMO has a call for more ambitious climate mitigation efforts and urgent action. Here is the action which they seek. It is the one solution which is proactive, clean and simple, inexpensive, and will have immediate and continuing results. What does it take to implement the Active Climate Rescue Initiative: Move the Water! This one must be implemented, and the sooner the better for all our sakes. WMO: How can this be implemented? We could begin reversing Global Warming in months.

Postscript

The actions encouraged by Active Climate Rescue Initiative: Move the Water! can be consider as National Determined Contributions under Paris Accord agreements. And again, these actions will be less expensive than other options.

Disclaimer

Of course, this does not remove the need for other actions. The Move the Water! initiative is not an if/or option. It is an if/and option.

Help Reverse Climate Change

Your small donation to Active Climate Rescue Initiative will help reverse Global Warming. Reversing Global Warming and stopping Climate Change is our only goal, and we know how to do it. Your support will allow us to broadcast our message and save the world. Someone must do it. Be part of the someone.

Donate

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This is a multi-step process, and for brevity this page will address some of the major tasks which must be accomplished to make this occur. This is the most grandiose Move the Water! proposal for the USA where Global Warming can be impacted, and reversal initiated. Not all possible steps can be included in this page, and there are alternate options for every step.

The Benefits Are Immense.

Bringing water to a desert is bringing life to the desert. Where there is life, there are possibilities. The grandiose statement of return on investment is that Global Warming will be combated by this effort. Water in the Great Basin will recirculate via the hydrologic cycle throughout the whole of the Great Basin. With the water comes localized cooling and plant growth. Some of that water and will migrate toward the surrounding states, bringing with it the same Global Warming reduction benefits. On the grand scale, there is no downside. Imagine the below video to be the Great Basin. It can be this way; we just need to add water.  

Where there is water, there is life By Afrika24 Reisen

The Downside … Change Brings Change.

Change always brings disruption of status quo and unintended consequences, but for the greater global good, these must be endured. The problems are inundation of dry places with standing water, which may render some land unusable for farming or habitation. But standing water is the goal of this initiative and is essential to provide large water surface area for evaporation.

How to Accept Change Is Inevitable by marty wilson

The Downside … People Live There.

The counter argument is that few people live in the areas which will be submerged. The areas are hot dry deserts. The people who must be relocated can be moved to water’s edge properties, which are usually considered to be more valuable than raw desert land.

The Downside … Farmland Will Be Flooded.

The farmland in a desert is only valuable if irrigation water is available. The good news is that new areas of agriculture will be established. Once water is brought into the desert, and fills the depression, the hydrologic cycle will take over and fresh water will be created via rain, mist and snow, reducing the requirement for irrigation. This is the benefit which will make the change valuable to the farmers. The desert can become fertile and green with addition of water, and some wise land management. The below video gives one option.

From the Ground Up – ‘Regenerative Agriculture’ by festival21

The Downside … Flash Floods.

Rain in desert is associated with flash floods. These will occur and must be endured, but they will naturally diminish as plants cover the ground and impede the unimpeded water runoff.  China has done amazing things to stem rapid water runoff from a landscape, and those techniques could be used in the Great Basin (see video near end of article: Regreening the desert with John D. Liu). The below video is aimed at a suburban community, but the information is excellent.

Flood Control: WHAT YOU CAN DO by peter berman

The Downside … Terminal Water Will Get Salty.

Yes, it will get salty in the terminal lake basin, in Death Valley. That is expected and not as much trouble as one thinks. The land which will be initially flooded is already salted from the body of water which previously occupied that location and evaporated. If this is a major problem, recirculation paths for the water can be established to eliminate Death Valley Basin as a terminal pool.

How to Rehydration the Great Basin?

This is a multi-stepped process with the end goal of creating a salt sea in Death Valley where the bulk of the evaporation will initially occur.

Rehydrate Great Basin … Step One.

Bring sea water from Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) into Laguna Salada, Mexico via the Coyote Canal. The below video demonstrates the waterway as envisioned by Agess Inc as one option in moving water to Laguna Salada. The option proposed by Agess Inc seems to be one of the less expensive options and it seems to return many benefits.

Binational Restoration of Laguna Salada & Salton Sea by Agess, Inc

Rehydrate Great Basin … Step Two.

Bring the sea water from Laguna Salada into the Salton Sea via an extension of the Coyote Canal. This is easily accomplished (easily is a relative term, but it is much easier than the construction of the Colorado River Aqueduct, which is a 242 mi (389 km) water conveyance which crosses the Rocky Mountains delivering water from the Colorado River to Los Angeles CA. The extension of the Coyote Canal needs to be a metered flow to preclude overfill of the Salton Sea. The above video also includes visualization of the extended Coyote Canal. The below video is a video discussion of an alternative idea for filling the Salton Sea with water.

The Salton Sea Solution by stocktondan

Rehydrate Great Basin … Step Three.

Install a drain in the Salton Sea. One of the problems identified by StocktonDan is the increasing salinity of the Salton Sea caused by continued evaporation. There are quite a few options presented to mitigate the salt saturation of the Salton Sea being proposed by many people. The solution that I present here is to drain the Salton Sea, but only after steps one and two above have been completed. The below video shows how a drain/valve can be installed in the base of a lake so the water can be drained out like that of a bathtub.

Lake Mead Intake Hydraulic Tunnel, Las Vegas by Salini Impregilo

Rehydrate Great Basin … Step Four.

Putting a drain in the bottom of the Salton Sea is all good and fine, but where does the drain go/empty? The next and nearest lower place is Death Valley. The drain must be routed via tunnel to Death Valley. This step could be achieved without the drain if a surface level intake were used instead of the drain. This will not keep the Salton Sea as clean as using a drain would, but it is much less expensive.  The water tunnel is a 100+ mile long, 15 foot diameter, tube installed underground via a boring machine.  Underground tunnels have been made, and The Boring Company boasts to be able to put them almost anywhere and any distance, for a cost well below anyone else. This would be a good test of the long-distance capabilities of The Boring Company. The completion of the tunnel would be an engineering feat which will benefit the reversal of Global Warming in many ways.

Tunnels by The Boring Company

Rehydrate Great Basin … Step Five.

Let the water flow. I expect that it will take much more than the full flow of one 15’ diameter pipe to fill Death Valley with water. If no other input is developed, I doubt that a large lake will form. There will be a balance point where daily evaporation will equal the pipe’s input. Filling Death Valley with water is the subject a paper by Chuan C. Chang: Creating Death Valley Lake His paper suggests multiple intakes with outtakes to keep the salinity to a balanced level. He expects that the land along the new inland sea and along the canals could be sold to individuals and the profit form the land sales would fund the project. Filling Death Valley with water is also the subject of the two videos below.

The Little-Pacific Project by Tribute Flight

Fill Death Valley with Ocean Water by thebillo313

We Have Water in Death Valley, Now What?

Now The Fun Begins. No further direct human action is required. What has been accomplished by moving the water there is the most important part. The hydrologic processes do the rest. Let’s review what will occur through natural hydrologic processes.

Water Evaporated and Returns

Water will evaporate from the surface of the newly formed Death Valley Sea. The water will be taken into the air for redistribution in mostly within the Great Basin with smaller amounts passing over the rim and entering the surrounding states. What water is removed will be replaced via the open water path. The evaporated water returned to the Great Basin in the form of dew on the ground in mornings, in the form of rain, and in the form of snow on the tops of the mountains. This returned water is cleaned water, suitable for drinking, for watering plants and irrigating crops.

Plants Grow.

Plants will grow when they have an ongoing supply of moisture. The plants retain water in their structure, they are made up of approximately 90% water, water which is not immediately returned to the ocean but retained as long as the plant lives. The plants clean the air of CO2. They return breathable O2 into the air and use the Carbon as building block for the plant structures, Carbon that will be held in the plant (sequestered) while it lives and be integrated into the soil as the plant eventually decomposes. Plants are natural air conditioners. As water evaporates from plant leaves; the air is cooled. Below is a video about how one desert plant, a moss, collects water from airborne humidity.

PLANT WATER RELATIONS by 7activestudio

Ground Water Collects

As plants shade the ground, the ground temperature is lowered, which allows the water to percolate into the ground, and be held there waiting for use. The soul will become moist and some underground aquifers will be refilled; again, slowing the water’s return to the ocean.

Water Movement in Soil by NRCS NSSC

Step-3:

Given enough time the hydrologic action should re-hydrate the entire Great Basin region. This could generate the natural refilling of several dry depressions within the Great Basin, including the Great Salt Lake. Just by keeping the waterways open allowing the Death Valley inland sea to remain full, these areas could be returned to a healthy fertile area, growing food for many people. The plants and the ground retain water, so the ocean levels are lower. The environment in these very hot places is cooled, which will cool the entire globe.

Videos About Greening Deserts

Get some water into the Great Basin, and then the entire landscape can be terraformed by natural processes, and/or with some human intervention, the Great Basin can become a really nice lush place.

Regreening the desert with John D. Liu

How Peter Andrews rejuvenates drought-struck land by ABC News

Rainwater Catchment for Reforestation & Increased Production by Vida Verde Finca, Vilcabamba

Help Reverse Climate Change

Your small donation to Active Climate Rescue Initiative will help reverse Global Warming. Reversing Global Warming and stopping Climate Change is our only goal, and we know how to do it. Your support will allow us to broadcast our message and save the world. Someone must do it. Be part of the someone. Donate today.