
The Panama Canal Expands - jonbaer
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-panama-canal-expands-1466378348
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yequalsx
I grew up in the Canal Zone, Panama. I'm in the last generation of true
Zonians. When the Panama Canal Treaty started to take effect on October 1,
1979 we all thought it was the beginning of the end of the Panama Canal. When
Panama took over the railroad it shortly became defunct so our beliefs weren't
entirely without foundation. Military personnel at one point were banned from
riding it.

We were angry about losing, from our perspective, our homeland. The Canal Zone
police force was disbanded and the PDF (Panama Defense Forces) started
patrolling my home town. More and more Panama encroached on what I thought of
as my homeland. During Noriega I was convinced Panama would run the canal into
the ground.

I went back to Panama 8 years ago and I was pleasantly surprised at the
progress the country has made. They've done a great job in running the canal
and the country has noticeably benefited from America's withdrawal. My
anecdotal experience is that colonialism is bad. Even in benign forms.

I talked with an elderly rabiblanco the last time I was there. He said America
leaving made Panama grow up. By all indications they have done so and I'm glad
to see it.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
> They've done a great job in running the canal and the country has noticeably
> benefited from America's withdrawal.

Your comment is missing the part where the US military had to go in and take
down Noriega. The intervention allowed Guillermo Endara to take power and
dissolved the Panamanian Defense Force. Without it, Noriega would certainly
still be in power.

Under Torrijos–Carter Treaties the US has a right to intervene militarily to
protect the canal. This is probably the biggest thing keeping it from becoming
a defacto Russian or Chinese port or drug-runner owned port. Look, I'm all for
local politics but your post suggests that everything just went fine with the
locals, but in reality the port will always be under US protection in one form
or another, which helps keep it thriving.

Remember locals were outraged and protesting in the streets that the US dare
attack their beloved bloodthristy dictator. Dies hards still exist:

>Eighteen years after the invasion, Panama's National Assembly unanimously
declared 20 December 2007 to be a day of national mourning.

Source: wikipedia.

~~~
sp4rki
Panamanian here.

> Without it, Noriega would certainly still be in power.

That's debatable. Thankfully the US took care of the situation efficiently,
but the general climate was pointing towards a bloody civil war.

> Under Torrijos–Carter Treaties the US has a right to intervene militarily to
> protect the canal.

Thankfully in my opinion. Though you could argue that it also makes the Canal
a target.

> Remember locals were outraged and protesting in the streets that the US dare
> attack their beloved bloodthirsty dictator. Dies hards still exist

This is the only part I truly disagree with. A very small minority actually
protested in favor of General Noriega. Pretty much the whole country was on
board with removing him from power with the obvious exception of people that
followed him to power of their own. Panamanians were not outraged because of
the removal of their dictator, but of the methods used to do so that left a
bloody trail and piles of dead bodies.

December 20 is a national mourning day in recognition of the people that gave
their life during such turmoil, not in the name of a power hungry and greedy
Noriega.

EDIT: The US soldiers where super nice to me as a kid. I even got to drive in
a tank and they gave me a shitload of soda.

~~~
curtis
Some useful context can be found at
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamanian_general_election,_1...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamanian_general_election,_1989).

I've always found it notable that the purpose of the 1989 U.S. invasion of
Panama was to remove a dictator and replace him with a democratically elected
government.

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tomglynch
They increased the lock size from 1000 _100_ 42 feet to 1400 _180_ 60 feet.

Until now, the maximum amount of containers on a ship that could fit was 5000.
New locks - 14,000 containers.

One thing I hope though is this is future-proof by building for larger than
the largest current ships. Is this the case?

~~~
msandford
It helps to use "x" instead of shift-8 (star) as the star is used for italics
which is why your comment is a little hard to understand at first.

~~~
Retric
Or spaces "lock size from 1000 * 100 * 42 feet to 1400 * 180 * 60 feet."

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dghughes
There was a TV documentary on about the expansion all I remember is the lock
doors cost $500 million each!

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timthelion
It is really disturbing to look at an article like this and not see a single
mention of the HUGE amount of fresh water being dumped into the ocean in order
for these locks to function.

~~~
jcranmer
A single downward lock cycle uses 100,000m³. About 35-40 ships per day transit
the canal, so a single day wastes about 4,000,000m³ of water.

The Mississippi River discharges about 17,000m³ a second. Each day, that river
alone discharges 1,450,828,800m³ of water.

Closer to the canal, the Amazon River discharges as much water as a ship
locking does every ½ second. Admittedly, the Amazon River is by far the
largest river in terms of discharge.

If my math is right, the Panama Canal uses less water than a small metropolis.

~~~
mikeash
I think it's important to point out that "uses water" here means "temporarily
restrains water on its natural way to the ocean."

This water isn't being pulled out of storage and dumped in the ocean, it's
precipitation that would be going into the ocean anyway.

Using it in the canal first could very well _reduce_ the amount of fresh water
that reaches the ocean, since retaining it would cause some evaporation loss.
Although I'm sure that's completely insignificant either way.

~~~
Rexxar
The artificial lake created by the canal (Gatun Lake) has a surface of 425km²
so indeed we can effectively say that some water has been restrained on its
natural way to the ocean.

