Milton N. Burgess P.E.

San Diego Experience

Where Did the Water Go? Chapter Two

The Future That Might Be
By Milton N. Burgess P.E.
Posted on Nov 29 2007
Last updated Jan 03 2008

February 15, 2102 – 2:45 P.M.

Deflating the living quarters took all morning. George and Judy had "one more picture to take" while Scott and Barry packed up.

After two weeks in El Centro they were ready to leave. The water generator had malfunctioned twice, so water for bathing was eliminated. They were looking forward to a shower in San Diego.

Seawater plants still provided most of the water for San Diego's residences. Population was back to about 75,000, about the same as the early 1900's. Industry had moved out, first little by little and then en mass as water became too expensive for manufacturing purposes.

"Radiation levels are still high where the canals used to be" Scott said as he locked the outside storage compartment holding "dirty gear".

"The whole picture would be different if unregulated nuclear waste had not been dumped into Lake Meade right after the quake", Barry responded.(1)

"Remember, according to the text we used in Dr. Obermeyer's river hydrology, the radiation contamination that spread downstream made the river water unusable. Obermeyer almost always cries when he lectures on it. Las Vegas took the big hit"

"It was a wonderful source of water", Scott said, remembering those lectures.

"The radiation in the silt will take many years to dissipate before the water can be used."

"And that's why Mexico forced the treaty negotiations, right?"

"Yeah, they succeeded in re-opening the 1848 Treaty of Hidalgo(2) when we couldn't deliver what was left of the Colorado River.

Mexico only wanted back Southern California from Monterey south, still using the Colorado River for the eastern boundary. With the oil reserves a non-issue, no agriculture and no water, it didn’t seem much of a loss to the U.S."

"The administration that made the deal thought they could increase their Hispanic voter loyalty in the rest of the country, but it all backfired."

"Anyway, the whole mess really upped the need for hydrologists, and I'm happy about that. Maybe you and I can figure out how to bring back the Colorado and thus become rich and famous."

"Famous I don't care about", quipped Barry.

George and Judy pulled along side in a cloud of dust, and Scott waved them on to take the lead.

"Are you happy with your results?” Scott asked the two over the visu-com in the National Geo hovercraft, as they skimmed over old highway eight. The anti-grav propulsion system was all Scott needed when the surfaces were fairly smooth. Only when he needed more elevation did he have to run the cold fusion engines to raise the craft.

"Wonderful shots of old El Centro", George responded, "and this morning we went back to the remains of that geothermal plant."

"Most of it is gone, but the geometric shapes of the concrete structures made for dramatic stuff --New York is thrilled with it. I told them you guys are making the trip almost a pleasure with the help you're providing".

“Almost?”

“Yea, almost --we photogs are not schedule-driven like you engineer-types.”

Ignoring the verbal jab, Scott responded, "Too bad the hot water in those old wells is so loaded with heavy metals, might be a good source, even as hot as it is."

“Better kick on the cold fusion engines to get a little elevation, looks rough ahead”, Barry cautioned as the hovercraft dodged major boulders strewn on the old highway.

“10-4, as they used to say”, Scott responded, “The start sequence is initiated…continue on with the data you found about Yuma”.

“Where was I…..oh, yeah….the newspaper archive article about the $238 million, 60 acre Yuma Desalting Plant completed in 1992. Pretty interesting. ‘They built this plant to reduce the salinity of the Colorado River before it entered Mexico. It was considered to be the largest reverse osmosis water treatment facility in the world at the time.‘ The article went on to say, ‘but it’s not operating because of successful efforts upstream to reduce salt inflows into the river. It could desalinate 72 million gallons of Colorado River water per day (Steve LaRue, Staff Writer, San Diego Union Tribune, Technology on Tap, April 22, 1998.) After floods washed away one of the diversion canals in 1992, the Bureau of Reclamation mothballed the plant, just nine months after turning it on. A series of wet years rendered it unnecessary. (February 2007 U. S. Water News Online)

“There was a very interesting environmental twist to the whole issue of operating the plant. Early history tells us that before all the dams were built, the Colorado River delta in Mexico extended over two million acres, an area almost the size of Rhode Island, rich with nutrients brought downriver with tons of silt. In 1922, the conservationist Aldo Leopold and his brother explored the Colorado River delta by canoe.”

“Leopold exulted in ‘all the wealth of fowl and fish…in this milk-and-honey wilderness’ as his canoe wove through winding waterways and green lagoons. The two subsisted on quail and geese they harvested. Beaver, deer, and jaguar flourished, while shrimp and the totoaba, migrated from the upper Gulf of California to spawn in the delta’s brackish waters. Millions of waterfowl and shorebirds could be seen circling, then descending to feed and rest in the lagoon. Leopold’s essay The Green Lagoon in his book A Sand County Almanac (1949) gives a description of the delta as it was then.(Web Reference: http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Gorge/5604/aldoleopoldcoloradodelta1.htm) The area is called Cienega de Santa Clara.”

“But that has all changed, Scott mused, “Progress they say. Sometimes I wonder.”

“It was reported that bringing the plant back on line, so that lake Mead would not be further drained to meet treaty obligations with Mexico, threatened to destroy the 40,000-acre Colorado River delta, since its water supply would likely be slashed.(May 2005 U. S. Water News Online)

“The plant was started up again in 2007, just exactly 100 years ago, to do some testing to determine if it could be made to be a viable source of water for Arizona, but accounts of the test seemed to disappear, so we don’t exactly know what happened.”

“You were right, no need to go over to Yuma. Not much there except the remains of the American Canal. The plant was dismantled and shipped to China after the nuclear waste disaster up-river.”

“Speaking of China, they did get a handle on their water resources, didn’t they?” Scott asked.

“Actually they did. We exported much of our technology to them….a habit we couldn’t seem to break…and they took advantage of it. Around the year 2000, as China’s population – growing by 10 million annually – approached the 1.3 billion mark, authorities reaffirmed the one-child policy, which, they claimed, had prevented at least 250 million births over the last 20 years.” (Britannica Book of the Year, 2001, World Affairs.)

“Both an immediate and a long-term threat to China’s prosperity was the country’s growing water crisis. China was endowed with only one-quarter of the world’s per capita average of water resources, and the demands that agriculture, industry, and a growing urban population put on water supplies had already led to severe depletion of groundwater levels, conflicts between upstream and downstream consumers, and theft of water by desperate farmers. Perhaps a fifth or more of the country’s water supply was wasted through inefficient irrigation systems, antiquated delivery systems, and the lack of realistic pricing systems for water resources.”

“That last comment could have been said about the United States”, Scott said as he cleared the last rock-strewn section and settled the hovercraft down for a quieter and smoother ride on the anti-grav system. “San Diego weather is reported to be in the mid-70’s with clear skies. Glad to be headed there.”

(Chapter Three – Charlie and FEWA, the Federal Emergency Water Agency)

About the author: Milt Burgess is a Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer in several states and a licensed California contractor with experience in all phases of mechanical construction and consulting spanning several decades.
More by this author.

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