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Rehydrating the Grand Canyon

If it were possible, would you support rehydrating the Colorado River?

  • Yes. Great idea and would become an important water source for the South West

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No. Bad idea

    Votes: 5 100.0%

  • Total voters
    5

Smeagol

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This is a hypothetical but in time possibly a plausible question. If some day we develop the technology to rehydrate the Colorado River including the Grand Canyon, filling it with fresh water, should we do it? Presupposing fresh water reserves are not being depleted from elsewhere. Advanced desalinization technology in both volume and cost from the Pacific Ocean and/or creating surgically precise rain storms using atmospheric manipulation.
 
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It could be relatively easy piping water from the Ohio River Valley... and unless Southern Cal. finally becomes an island it will likely be needed to keep the Los Angelinos' lawns green.

Thom Paine
 
If by "rehydrating" you mean increasing and controlling the flow of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, perhaps. However, the Grand Canyon is the site of many fragile ecosystems and endangered flora/fauna, so without extensive ecological studies and tight controls in place, I would be against such an endeavor.
 
I'm sorry.... is the Colorado River dehydrated?
 
I agree with the question "Why?" Is there a problem to be solved, or is this a solution looking for a problem?
 
Gotta agree with my fellow posters on this.. Why and to what purpose..
 
If by "rehydrating" you mean increasing and controlling the flow of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, perhaps.
The Hoover dam already does that.
 
I agree with the question "Why?" Is there a problem to be solved, or is this a solution looking for a problem?

Probably a little of both. I was under the understanding water levels of the Colorado River are so deplete,d the South Western US is facing water shortages at dangerous levels going forward. The reason there is even a Grand Canyon today is because the Colorado River was once filled to the brim with water. Of course, if we have technology that could desalinize water from the Pacific at levels and costs that could make turning the Colorado River to the Mississippi of the west and filling the Grand Canyon up, we could just as easily send that water directly to cities and towns throughout the west. Just thinking what if we could restore it to its former state, would it be a bad thing or a good thing.

I do think figuring out a way to "manufacture" fresh water with the use of technology is going to need to be a big research and development priorities of the twenty-first century. Better desalinization, atmospheric manipulation or something involving hydrogen energy production.
 
:shock: We can't do that.

Why? I'll bet that we could. We're told every single day that we have power to shame the Olympians of old, that we raise the seas, melt the boreal ice, conjure hurricanes (or dispel them, its a murky area.) Drying the Great Lakes should be a snap! Are we not gods?
 
I'd support the idea, but only if we simultaneously emptied the great lakes.
It would take about 20 times that much water to fill the Grand Canyon.

I don't think Smeagol really comprehends the magnitude of this project.
 
Why? I'll bet that we could. We're told every single day that we have power to shame the Olympians of old, that we raise the seas, melt the boreal ice, conjure hurricanes (or dispel them, its a murky area.) Drying the Great Lakes should be a snap! Are we not gods?

I meant we shouldn't do that. Probably can't either but probably over time we could drain water from the Great Lakes through water piplines to the west. Not how long it would take to completely dry them out.
 
I think every generation must strive to make some lasting and incredibly stupid changes to the face of Earth. Adapting to what you have and tinkering on the edges is for losers. One of the bitter tragedies of the 20th century was sudden and untimely death of that visionary leader, Leonid Brezhnev - just when his project of reversing the flow of the three great Siberian rivers to irrigate the steppes of Central Asia was about to commence. I am not sure we have the discipline and ingenuity of the Soviet people, but flooding the Great Canyon sounds almost as good.

It doesn't have to be always flooding, of course. We could go the opposite way, and rebuild the land connection between Russia and Alaska. (Connecting Cape Froward and the Antarctic continent would be even more awesome, but I doubt we can convince Chileans that the bridge will pay for itself in the timeframe they are used to. Those copper-mining, wine-making petty capitalists are not known for soaring imagination of the kind that made Brezhnev a titan among men).
 
Presupposing fresh water reserves are not being depleted from elsewhere. Advanced desalinization technology in both volume and cost from the Pacific Ocean and/or creating surgically precise rain storms using atmospheric manipulation.

Manipulating rain storms inherently depletes water from elsewhere.
 
We do not understand the dynamics of our climate well enough to predict what
the ramification would be.
We could also fill death valley, the dead sea area, or many other areas below sea level.
Theses kinds of big changes would change the local climate, but also could
alter global patterns.
We will one day have the ability to do terraforming, but should try it somewhere else first.:mrgreen:
 
This is a hypothetical but in time possibly a plausible question. If some day we develop the technology to rehydrate the Colorado River including the Grand Canyon, filling it with fresh water, should we do it? Presupposing fresh water reserves are not being depleted from elsewhere. Advanced desalinization technology in both volume and cost from the Pacific Ocean and/or creating surgically precise rain storms using atmospheric manipulation.

If we wait, the Earth changes might do it for you.

Future%20Map%20of%20America.jpg
 
I think every generation must strive to make some lasting and incredibly stupid changes to the face of Earth. Adapting to what you have and tinkering on the edges is for losers. One of the bitter tragedies of the 20th century was sudden and untimely death of that visionary leader, Leonid Brezhnev - just when his project of reversing the flow of the three great Siberian rivers to irrigate the steppes of Central Asia was about to commence. I am not sure we have the discipline and ingenuity of the Soviet people, but flooding the Great Canyon sounds almost as good.

It doesn't have to be always flooding, of course. We could go the opposite way, and rebuild the land connection between Russia and Alaska. (Connecting Cape Froward and the Antarctic continent would be even more awesome, but I doubt we can convince Chileans that the bridge will pay for itself in the timeframe they are used to. Those copper-mining, wine-making petty capitalists are not known for soaring imagination of the kind that made Brezhnev a titan among men).

:lamo
 
If we wait, the Earth changes might do it for you.

Future%20Map%20of%20America.jpg

The whole Caribbean under water! However, there'll be a huge island the size of Madagascar and another one the size of Sri Lanka off the East Coast.

I was think fresh water for drinking and irrigation, not ocean water except to be used as original source water that is desalinized.
 
Probably a little of both. I was under the understanding water levels of the Colorado River are so deplete,d the South Western US is facing water shortages at dangerous levels going forward. The reason there is even a Grand Canyon today is because the Colorado River was once filled to the brim with water. Of course, if we have technology that could desalinize water from the Pacific at levels and costs that could make turning the Colorado River to the Mississippi of the west and filling the Grand Canyon up, we could just as easily send that water directly to cities and towns throughout the west. Just thinking what if we could restore it to its former state, would it be a bad thing or a good thing.

I do think figuring out a way to "manufacture" fresh water with the use of technology is going to need to be a big research and development priorities of the twenty-first century. Better desalinization, atmospheric manipulation or something involving hydrogen energy production.

A better solution is to not have millions of people trying to settle in the freaking desert (but unfortunately there really is no way of pulling this off now).

Having said that, I am almost certain the Grand Canyon was never filled anywhere close to the brim. The Colorado river has slowly and surely gouged out the trough it meanders through today. And I do mean meander.. formations such as this show that a humble little river slowly wore away the chasm that it now resides in:

26456_album_434.JPG


Now granted, the water levels in the river may be lower today than they were in the past, but that is because of this little thing up near Las Vegas called the Hoover dam. We control how much water flows through the grand canyon. Now the water levels on the backside of the Hoover dam in Lake Mead may be on the decline, but that is because of how many people count on this artery for water. Adding more water into the river basin is not the solution - nor would there be any true benefit to doing so. Finding more sources of water is what needs to be done, whether that be desalination, finding ways to capture snow melt more effectively, towing icebergs into freaking LA harbor, whatever.

So in short now that I have rambled a bit.. you are trying to solve something that is not a major problem. If you want to return the Colorado to its original state, then you need to find alternative ways to generate electricity and provide water to millions of people. Once that is done we can demolish the hoover dam and let nature do its thing. To reiterate and clear up what seems to be a misconception on your part though, at no point was the grand canyon completely filled.. it has always been a meandering river in the bottom of a chasm which it carved out for itself.
 
The whole Caribbean under water! However, there'll be a huge island the size of Madagascar and another one the size of Sri Lanka off the East Coast.

I was think fresh water for drinking and irrigation, not ocean water except to be used as original source water that is desalinized.

Yes those are 'possible' scenarios due to Earth changes, [rise and fall of land masses, subsequent flooding, etc]

There is a theory that the Grand Canyon was formed by an up-lift of the land mass and an inflow of magma. [past Earth changes]

Grand Canyon Age & Formation, Colorado Plateau Uplift | Plate Tectonics & Continents | Earth's Interior, Mantle, Crust, Lithosphere, Asthenosphere | LiveScience
 
It could be relatively easy piping water from the Ohio River Valley... and unless Southern Cal. finally becomes an island it will likely be needed to keep the Los Angelinos' lawns green.

Thom Paine

Over my dead body...or would that be under?
 
Here are some old images of the grand canyon to get a feel for what the water level was prior to our engineering of Colorado river:

lossy-page1-502px-GRAND_CANYON_OF_THE_COLORADO%2C_MOUTH_OF_PARIA_CREEK%2C_LOOKING_WEST_FROM_PLATUEAU_-_NARA_-_524227.tif.jpg


%27Noon_Day_Rest_in_Marble_Canyon%27_from_the_second_Powell_Expedition_1872.jpg


Here is an old map, I am just going to link to the map instead of embedding it here since the size of the map is huge.. note the size of the valley compared to the size of the COlorado river flowing through it: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Map_of_the_Grand_Canyon_National_Monument_1908.jpg

Another image at this link, a painting from 1882 of the Grand Canyon: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Duttonnp000077AAA2.jpg

Now granted the water level is likely lower than what it was in the past, but this is all because of the Hoover Dam. The greater environmental concern regarding the Colorado river is that it no longer floods, and that the estuary at its mouth is not nearly as large as it once was. These are ramifications of the Dam. Adding water to the river downstram of the dam is pointless, it would have to have a constant source to renew it so that it did not all flow out to the sea. There are only 2 solutions 1) remove the dam or 2) steal water from somewhere else and redirect it upstream of the dam and let more water through with occasional surges to produce flooding downstream. Neither are practical.. the former will deny millions of people water and electricity.. it is too late to put that genie back in the bottle. far too many people depend on the Hover Dam, and the river for both water and electricity. #2 is not feasible either. stealing water from somewhere else would mean other watersheds would be depleted and other populations would be impacted.
 
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