
The Day We Set the Colorado River Free - frankydp
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/Open-the-Floodgates-The-Day-We-Set-the-Colorado-River-Free.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=facebookpost
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socialist_coder
Really great article. I love the weekend reading on HN.

This part of the article really caught my eye:

>>> Current “use it or lose it” water laws don’t allow farmers to sell any
surplus allotment, so they end up growing as much alfalfa as they can and
selling it on the global market. Peter Culp estimates that 50 billion gallons
of water—1.5 pulse flows—is shipped to China each year in the form of alfalfa,
and even more to Japan. An open water market would allow both cities and
environmental groups to pay farmers far more than they currently make growing
alfalfa. <<<

Terrible! The US West has been fighting water scarcity problems for 10+ years
and we're exporting billions of gallons of water overseas?

There is also a new documentary out called DamNation which looks quite
interesting. [http://damnationfilm.com/](http://damnationfilm.com/)

~~~
cven714
My fathers specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing
any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow.
The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and
he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of
alfalfa he did not produce.

Couldn't resist. Not often alfalfa comes up in conversation.

~~~
benihana
You should mention that this is a quote from Catch-22.

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scythe
A common misconception is that hydroelectricity has the advantage over other
renewables of requiring less land. This is not the case. The surface area of
Lake Mead is 640 square kilometers -- this much ecologically viable land was
destroyed to make way for hydroelectricity. The power generation capacity
afforded by the Hoover Dam on this lake is roughly 2 GW.

A solar panel produces roughly (we're lowballing) 100 watts per square meter.
Solar panels to produce 2 GW -- the power output of Lake Mead -- would cover
about 20 million square meters, or 20 square kilometers. If we assume the
solar panels only operate at capacity for a third of a day, that's 60 square
kilometers. If we also assume that only half of the used land is actually
light-capturing, that's 120 square kilometers.

Even under the most pessimistic of assumptions, solar still uses _five times_
less land than hydro. Realistic solar installations would probably be
significantly more efficient than I've assumed. Batteries are also
significantly more space-efficient than hydroelectric storage.

~~~
cwal37
It's also a misconception to equate huge-reservoir hydro with all hydro. The
Norwegians have incredibly high head, phenomenally efficient hydro in the
mountains with minimal environmental impact. We have run of river
hydroelectric in the states that diverts some water via penstock, as well as
canal-based systems and those that utilize Army Corp dams. In fact, there is
significant non-powered dam resource available:
[http://nhaap.ornl.gov/content/non-powered-dam-
potential](http://nhaap.ornl.gov/content/non-powered-dam-potential)

I'm actually working on national-level hydro assessments at a national lab. We
don't really predict more huge reservoir installments, but there is plenty of
capacity out there. These set-ups (particularly non-powered dams) are also
generally pretty cheap per kWh generated over their lifetimes (which in some
cases reaches 70+ years).

~~~
EdwardDiego
> We have run of river hydroelectric in the states that diverts some water via
> penstock

Do you have wildlife issues to consider in the design? E.g., are the dams on
rivers fish migrate up?

~~~
cwal37
Well, run-of-river installations actually don't have dams, and you can prevent
most fish with just some mesh, so you're avoiding that impact entirely.

~~~
EdwardDiego
Ah cool, that's good to hear (so long as flows are sustainable, unlike some of
our proposals for 'harnessing all that wasted water')

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hhsnopek
This is amazing! It's unfortunate that we can't have the dams constantly open
or at least a few to keep some water flow. I would love to fund something that
would allow us to do this yearly or even more frequently

~~~
ISL
If you're a US citizen, you already do fund such an entity with your taxes.

If it's important to you, let your legislators know, and vote accordingly.

~~~
dchest
You "already fund" something, but need to vote for it to be funded?

~~~
masklinn
No, you need to vote for it to take the decisions you'd like taken.

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acbergan
>>> hamburgers are a particularly stupid thing to make out of the Colorado.
Each hamburger takes about 500 gallons of water.

I will be eating fewer hamburgers after reading this.

~~~
josephjrobison
Yea ~1500 gallons of water for every pound of beef

