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Osprey
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Drought update
Drought Update May 2012
Not good news. Meteorologists say this year the Southern Pacific will be a neutral La Niña, El Niño year --- so one might say we have a 50/50 chance
of a wet one coming close enough to help us. The cape region has not seen a drop of rain from storms since hurricanes John, Miriam and Paul in the
summer of 2006 blessed us with a little.
I just talked to some people who live where the water we drink comes from, San Dionysio canyon. The situation there is dire because the stream has
dried up and now the many ranchos in the canyon must haul in household water while their animals grow weak and die. For the very first time any of
them can remember, the government in Santiago is placing large portable water tanks near the main canyon road to accommodate the ranchos.
Mountain people are a suspicious lot and to add to their many fears now the same canyon is experiencing unusually high numbers of temblors (26 in one
day and some aftershocks strong enough to knock things around in their kitchens, frighten the mascots and the children). There is but one dirt road up
the canyon to the ranchos and falling rocks now choke the road almost daily. So the mountain people see the drought very clearly and as the hurricane
season progresses we will be able to hear their prayers way down here in the flats.
Perhaps geologists could tell us if the drought is causing the earthquakes because it is changing the strata as the aquifers dry up and leave behind
empty underground pockets.
I don’t think this kind of crisis is one where the people can pay more to get more. It won’t be a matter of cost – it could be a matter of going way
down deep with the hopes that the next decades or centuries will be wetter than ever and we can recharge the precious dinosaur water with a little new
stuff. The irony is that salvation comes at another high price – we’ll be flooded with more water than we can use, be bounced around by the wind while
we watch it break all our stuff. Lots of laughing to keep from crying.
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Iflyfish
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Disconcerting and potentially devastating for this already parched and arid desert. Are we reduced to prayer? Meanwhile huge developments are in
progress and in the planning for this sensitive ecosystem. Sometimes I am glad I am on the second half of my life. Sic transit gloria mundi as the
Romans said it. Both nature and human nature can be generative or destructive mostly both. I pray for rain and wish away the hurricanes and short
sighted developers.
Iflyfish
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vandy
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To make matters even more fun, the well pump that supplies (at least) Agua Caliente and El Chorro just died around 8AM today.
It´ll take about 5 days to fix. Last time it took two weeks and OOSAPAS trucked water to the neighborhoods.
Still water in El Chorro canyon, but water rights arguments are heating up among the people who share the irrigation ditches. The govt plans on
replacing the ditches with pipelines...so "who gets a valve?¨" is the coming question...
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DavidE
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Mood: 'At home we demand facts and get them. In Mexico one subsists on rumor and never demands anything.' Charles Flandrau,
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A couple of weeks ago I made a comment about having enough wind power on the Pacific coast to generate enough electricity for Los Angeles. Dreaming of
course, but a huge wind farm could generate enough power to provide more water than Baja California Sur could ever want or need. Farms in Constitución
would flourish, same for Baja California around San Quintín. The technology can be used to remove the "C" from CO2 and make carbon fiber building
materials, materials with an "R" thermal value so high a 5,000 BTU air conditioner would dehumidify an entire home. You can bet LED lamps are coming
that use 95% less energy than incandescent. I gave my housekeeper an armful of CFL's to replace the incandescent's in her home. Solar panels are
coming that will cost basically a dollar per watt, and lithium technology is improving and lessening the price of batteries that hold ten times the
energy of lead acid and can be constantly discharged all the way to zero without damage.
Our climate is not changing solely because of man. It has been swinging from hot to cold, from wet to dry for hundreds of thousands of years. But in
my opinion just carelessly releasing greenhouse gasses during a climate change for the warmer makes about as much sense as tossing buckets of gasoline
on a huge forest fire. Carbon extraction from CO2....carbon fiber construction. It doesn't rust, or corrode, weighs a tiny that of fraction of steel
or aluminum, is unbelievably strong, and taking /Carbon out of CO2 leaves what molecule behind.....:-)
A Lot To See And A Lot To Do
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Osprey
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Where do the wind turbines get the water for the crops? Maybe I don't even know how to couch the question. How about "When the turbines turn, pushed
around by the wind, does water come out the bottom?"
David E, I'm new at this science stuff so bear with me.
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Barry A.
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
Where do the wind turbines get the water for the crops? Maybe I don't even know how to couch the question. How about "When the turbines turn, pushed
around by the wind, does water come out the bottom?"
David E, I'm new at this science stuff so bear with me. |
Good point, DavidE.
(energy drives de-sal plants, water from the ocean, is what I think DavidE means)
Barry
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motoged
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DavidE
.. You can bet LED lamps are coming that use 95% less energy than incandescent. I gave my housekeeper an armful of CFL's to replace the incandescent's
in her home. .... |
Those CFL's are conceptually great and practically poor....loaded with mercury and some other major downsides...
LED's ....YAY....the better alternative 
Don't believe everything you think....
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Cypress
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What happens when the water's gone? Ask the Anasazi.
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Barry A.
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Cypress
What happens when the water's gone? Ask the Anasazi. |
The "Anasazi" (the ancient one's) never got the "de-sal" concept nailed down right, but the big question I have always had was why they just did not
move down to the shores of Lake Powell???? OR, utilize the vast coal reserves under their feet to generate electricity to POWER their "de-Sal"
plants.  
These are the questions that just haunt me---------
barry
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Cypress
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Guess they were just too primitive to adjust.
[Edited on 5/22/2012 by Cypress]
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Osprey
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All the while this problem in Baja Sur has been building, while we have been using water without thinking about the consequences, we were also doing
some other stuff:
We were building dams in canyons in the mountains. The reservoirs natually fill up with sand/mud -- hate when that happens because it just takes all
day to dig them out with humongous machines only to fill up again and again.
We captured any running water and piped it to the nearest place that was running low, had the most money or could pay the biggest bribe.
We bought the cheapest submersible pumps (vs above ground) which have to be replaced each time the water table falls or a storm fills the wells with
rocks/sand.
We sold cheap water to farmers growing tomatoes/alfalfa/cotton -- 650,000 gallons for one season's crop of tomatoes per acre.
Let's see, what else .........
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Cypress
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Oops! Looks like the well is running dry!
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DavidE
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Mood: 'At home we demand facts and get them. In Mexico one subsists on rumor and never demands anything.' Charles Flandrau,
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Osprey, the soil that washes down and plugs the bottom of the reservoir is silt and mixed with esterico, cow manure, it produces some of the finest
additives I've ever encountered to mix with the ubiquitous sand down here. It is after all topsoil, albeit rather sparse in plant life compost. But,
mixed with esterico and sand, it is magic.
Yes, I meant R/O or even steam distillation to obtain fresh water. There are and have been R/O units on the market that yield one gallon of DISTILLED
water for every 120 watt hours of energy. As some of the larger windmills produce 60 to 100,000 watts, I think there is enough seawater and wind to
make an awful lot of water. The wind generator manufacture and R/O manufacturing sectors can blossom but of course the CEO's and Chairman's cannot
have hundred million dollar a year salaries, plus satisfy hordes of investors greedy for 10% annual dividends, and make the products affordable to the
world.
There is enough geothermal energy trapped beneath las tres virgenes to steam distill quadrillions of acre feet of fresh water.
Sinks and shower drains should be replumbed to the garden.
Just Dreaming
A Lot To See And A Lot To Do
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Barry A.
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DavidE
Osprey, the soil that washes down and plugs the bottom of the reservoir is silt and mixed with esterico, cow manure, it produces some of the finest
additives I've ever encountered to mix with the ubiquitous sand down here. It is after all topsoil, albeit rather sparse in plant life compost. But,
mixed with esterico and sand, it is magic.
Yes, I meant R/O or even steam distillation to obtain fresh water. There are and have been R/O units on the market that yield one gallon of DISTILLED
water for every 120 watt hours of energy. As some of the larger windmills produce 60 to 100,000 watts, I think there is enough seawater and wind to
make an awful lot of water. The wind generator manufacture and R/O manufacturing sectors can blossom but of course the CEO's and Chairman's cannot
have hundred million dollar a year salaries, plus satisfy hordes of investors greedy for 10% annual dividends, and make the products affordable to the
world.
There is enough geothermal energy trapped beneath las tres virgenes to steam distill quadrillions of acre feet of fresh water.
Sinks and shower drains should be replumbed to the garden.
Just Dreaming |
I need to know where I can get those "10%" dividends that you speak of, DavidE (Canadian Energy Trusts???).
There are a lot of problems to be worked out in GeoThermal, as you probably know. We have been doing GeoThermal for many many years now, and still
the caustic liquids they are working with take their toll on the plumbing, and the maintenance/ replacement rate is incredibly expensive.
But, you are right, and we need to keep it up and solve these problems for long-term solutions to energy-------if there is a way, the private sector
will find it, IMO. Govt. subsidies????well, not too promising, in my view, as less incentive for actual success when it is not your investment that
is on the line.
Barry
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Skipjack Joe
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I'm not thrilled about wind power because it mars the landscape. And yes, that is important to all - not just the "tree huggers". That collection of
windmills on the way to Palm Springs are "uglier than sin".
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DavidE
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Mood: 'At home we demand facts and get them. In Mexico one subsists on rumor and never demands anything.' Charles Flandrau,
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The best industry incentive is tax relief based on performance guarantees, open to public scrutiny. No tickee no washee.
Wind farms do not have to be placed outside your living room picture window. There are such things as access roads, and high voltage line
transmission. People have to start actually thinking about things like aesthetics and logistics. If it were desired, a fiftyfoot diameter pipeline
could be plumbed from the great northwet and canada, which would yield so much water it could turn southern california, arizona, and the baja
californias into a lake. Everything is now a commodity. Everything is now a tool used for manipulation, for power, prestige, politics, and above all
money.
Today's "have's" are going to find out sooner or later that they are just another feedstock for the very few "Have It All's" A rude lesson in the true
agenda of trickle down economics.
[Edited on 5-22-2012 by DavidE]
A Lot To See And A Lot To Do
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Barry A.
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DavidE
The best industry incentive is tax relief based on performance guarantees, open to public scrutiny. No tickee no washee.
Wind farms do not have to be placed outside your living room picture window. There are such things as access roads, and high voltage line
transmission. People have to start actually thinking about things like aesthetics and logistics. If it were desired, a fiftyfoot diameter pipeline
could be plumbed from the great northwet and canada, which would yield so much water it could turn southern california, arizona, and the baja
californias into a lake. Everything is now a commodity. Everything is now a tool used for manipulation, for power, prestige, politics, and above all
money.
Today's "have's" are going to find out sooner or later that they are just another feedstock for the very few "Have It All's" A rude lesson in the true
agenda of trickle down economics.
[Edited on 5-22-2012 by DavidE] |
Other than your last paragraph, I heartily agree with you, DavidE. I fully intend to continue participateing in the "trickle-down" phenomena (sp?) as
I have done for over 50 years. Successful investing is not for the faint of heart, and there is "risk" involved if you want to make some money, but
that is why you are paid well-------and get tax breaks-------for the "risks" that you take.
As for the wind towers------it's all a matter of perspective. View-sheds are highly over-rated, IMO, and many that have incredible "view-sheds" tell
me that after a while they don't even look at them, take them for granted, and often leave their shades drawn shut. To me the towers are a thing of
beauty in themselves, but we need to quiet them down (already being done) and use verticle-axis technology (perhaps?) so as not to kill bird life. I
have lived for years within the sight of major "towers" (the high voltage type) and you soon don't even notice them. I see the towers in the pass
west of Palm Springs and think-------"that is the future" and that gives me a shiver up and down my leg, just like Cris Mathew's of HARD BALL got when
Obama spoke back in 2008. (Well, that is an exageration, perhaps). But seriously, when you think of what the "towers" are accomplishing, it makes
them a lot more visually palatable, I believe. I totally support "wind power".
Now, lets get on with the pipelines, too--------ALL types of "pipelines", and that will "trickle down" into my (and millions of others) portfolios and
make us more comfortable than we are now. After all, we are all in this together. 
Barry
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Skipjack Joe
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Barry A.
I see the towers in the pass west of Palm Springs and think-------"that is the future" and that gives me a shiver up and down my leg....
Barry |
Given the career and profession you chose and worked a lifetime, to me you are an enigma.
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Iflyfish
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I recall an ecologist guy once saying that one must decide who is the change agent in a situation like this. Where is the point where one can have the
greatest impact? Is it the local guy sitting on his deck without an ice cube? Is it mothers who don't have water to wash their clothes? Is it the
developer whose project will go belly up when the water is gone.The locals en mass rising up in protest? Lots of time can be wasted tilting at
windmills that are not connected to grinding stones. Nimodo you might hear those who will not contribute to the solution say.
I once spent some time with Helen Caldicott, M.D. an Australian Pediatrician who discovered strontium 90 in mothers milk in her country. The source of
the radioactive isotopes was from French above ground nuclear testing on islands and atolls where the prevailing winds dusted Australia on a regular
basis with the fallout.
Caldicott talked to the press, lobbied legislators, generally raised hell and nothing happened. Then the good doctor rallied the local Longshoremen
against the French by telling them that the testing would ruin their testicles. Well, those "little Frenchies" got the Longshoremen upset enough that
they boycotted all French shipping into and out of Australia. The French decided to stop their bomb testing on the islands and atolls. End of story.
Start of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Now what is the moral of this story.....besides the antipathy of the Aussies against the French....and the Australians concern about their family
jewels.....well, like the story of the Steam Fitter who is hired to fix the broken steam system in a factory, he looks at the pipes and valves for a
few minutes and then hits a valve with his hammer. Vola! (pardon my French), the factory springs into motion again. The Foreman is very pleased and
asks the Steam fitter for his bill. The Steam Fitter hands him a bill for $100. The Foreman is outraged, "$100 for hitting a valve?! Give me an
itemized bill". The Steam Fitter obliged with the following bill:
Item 1, hitting a valve $5.00.
Item 2, Knowing which valve to hit $95.
I had a point to make when I started this thing, of this I am sure. Anyone have any idea which valve to hit in Baja Sur to get the water problem
solved?
Iflyfishwithleakymetaphors
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DavidE
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Mood: 'At home we demand facts and get them. In Mexico one subsists on rumor and never demands anything.' Charles Flandrau,
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Sadly, right now, there are no valves, only finite quantities of water deep down, hidden when wooly mammoths roamed the earth.
A Lot To See And A Lot To Do
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