Where is the outrage, where are all the “Environmentalists” where’s “PETA”....
It seems like the wind turbines that all the “Greenie Weenie’s” in the U.S. are so in love with are killing numerous birds in a gruesome, grisly and painful way when birds fly into them.
The greenies are so busy trying to get this County and its waterways straight.
Trying to fight “clean coal” sheesh- fracking- all those fuzzy commercials about ‘we have enough energy to harvest in the US to be energy independent and not have to rely on foreign country’s” sounds all nice and cozy- YES, we need to do it (say those who have no idea)- but they have no idea what is involved and its dangers.
Heck- there are so many fronts destroying- how can ‘us greenies’ do it all?
Maybe we need to find a remote COuntry to move to- and tell everybody else to go to heck.
Since we’re not anywhere close to being energy independent, and it would be years (probably decades) until we are close to being capable of being energy independent with “clean” energy, how nice and cozy do the greenies feel about being dependent on the middle east for our energy needs?
And if we don’t seem to be able to build a solar panel plant here in this country that doesn’t go bankrupt, even with government loans, how nice and cozy do the greenies feel about having China - with their MUCH less restrictive environmental controls - build those panels for our windfarms? (Have you ever been to China, especially in the winter? You’ll find out what real pollution is very quickly.)
Since we’re not anywhere close to being energy independent, and it would be years (probably decades) until we are close to being capable of being energy independent with “clean” energy, how nice and cozy do the greenies feel about being dependent on the middle east for our energy needs?
And if we don’t seem to be able to build a solar panel plant here in this country that doesn’t go bankrupt, even with government loans, how nice and cozy do the greenies feel about having China - with their MUCH less restrictive environmental controls - build those panels for our windfarms? (Have you ever been to China, especially in the winter? You’ll find out what real pollution is very quickly.)
I am pretty sure it’s still the case that a very small amount of our oil comes from the middle east. The vast majority comes from Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela. And outside of Saudi Arabia, we’re toppling the governments of all the other countries with oil and just taking it, so I doubt we’ll have to be hypocrites much longer by doing business with people we really don’t like.
The Solyndra deal was doomed from the start. Anyone paying attention to the details at the time has been sounding this horn for months. It has nothing to do with “green” being some sort of dirty word that will destine any project it’s associated with to failure.
Also the other elephant in the room:
“and it would be years (probably decades) until we are close to being capable of being energy independent “
Well we have known about and understood Peak Oil for more than 30 years now. That’s definitely “decades”. And since that time, our elected reps choose to continue to take lobbying dollars from big gas & oil. And as long as gas is cheap, we keep our mouths shut.
And now we see what 30+ years of squandered opportunities looks like.
You think wars over oil are bad, just wait to see what the ones over water will look like.
I believe you’re right seahorse. The Ogallala is only about 500 or 600 ft deep - it’s nowhere near as deep as some of “our” aquifers, i.e. the Patuxent, our deepest, which is somewhere around 2,000 ft down. I hope they’ve considered the Ogallala aquifer re: this pipeline, because if it’s contaminated, there’d be millions of people out there without water, let alone using it for irrigation!!
seahorse, you ARE RIGHT about the transcontinental pipeline crossing over the Ogallala. This is from Wikipedia:
In 2008, TransCanada Corporation proposed the construction of the 1,661-mile (2,673 km) Keystone XL pipeline to carry oil from the Athabasca oil sands of Alberta to refineries near Houston, Texas. The proposed route of the pipeline crossed the eastern part of the Nebraska Sandhills; opponents of the project argued that this route posed an unacceptable risk to the Ogallala Aquifer owing to the possibility of contamination from oil spills.
In August 2011, an environmental-impact report by the U.S. State Department found the Sandhills route would be the most economically feasible, and would be unlikely to have significant environmental impacts.
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So, there you have it… they’ve decided that it’s “unlikely to have significant environmental impacts”. Too bad, because when (not if) there’s a spill, all hell will break loose!!
The loss of water in the Ogallala aquifer is caused by a cyclical drought, much like what happened back in the 1930’s with the “Dust Bowl”, where the top layer of topsoil was lost due to a cyclical drought.
The so called food war you are talking about I agree with, but it won’t be caused by a loss of water to irrigate crops, it will be caused by the loss of corn and grains due to the “Greenie Weenies” screaming for more Ethanol which is made from corn and grains.
The Ogallala Aquifer is being both depleted and polluted. Irrigation withdraws much groundwater, yet little of it is replaced by recharge. Since large-scale irrigation began in the 1940s, water levels have declined more than 30 meters (100 feet) in parts of Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. In the 1980s and 1990s, the rate of groundwater mining , or overdraft, lessened, but still averaged approximately 82 centimeters (2.7 feet) per year.
Increased efficiency in irrigation continues to slow the rate of waterlevel decline. State governments and local water districts throughout the region have developed policies to promote groundwater conservation and slow or eliminate the expansion of irrigation. Generally, management has emphasized planned and orderly depletion, not sustainable yield. Depletion results
.
The average specific yield for the High Plains Aquifer is about 0.15. This means that only 15 percent of all the water available in the aquifer can be recovered using irrigation pumps, while the rest remains unused and locked up in the unsaturated zone . Groundwater depletion problems could be forestalled if this presently nonrecoverable water could be forced to the saturated zone . One experimental means of accomplishing this is by injecting air into the unsaturated zone, which breaks down capillary action and permits the movement of water down to the saturated zone. Air injection experiments have shown positive results for very localized areas. However, the widespread applicability of this technology has not yet proven effective.
The Ogallala Aquifer is in a state of overdraft owing to the current rate of water use.
If withdrawals continue unabated, the aquifer could be depleted in only a few decades.
The Ogallala is an unconfined aquifer, and virtually all recharge comes from rainwater and snowmelt. As the High Plains has a semiarid climate, recharge is minimal. Recharge varies by amount of precipitation, soil type, and vegetational cover and averages less than 25 millimeters (1 inch) annually for the region as a whole. In a few areas, recharge from surface water diversions has occurred.
Groundwater does flow through the High Plains Aquifer, but at an average rate of only 300 millimeters (12 inches) per day.
It was only after World War II that affordable technology became available to substantially extract water.
This transformed the High Plains into one of the most agriculturally productive regions in the world.
During the early years, this source of water was thought to be inexhaustible, and its hydrology a mystery.
But, because the rate of extraction exceeds the rate of recharge, water level elevations are decreasing.
At some places, the water table was measured to drop more than five feet (1.5 m) per year at the time of maximum extraction.
In extreme cases, the deepening of wells was required to reach the steadily falling water table.
The water table has been drained (dewatered) in some places, such as Northern Texas.
Utilizing treated recycled sources of water in agriculture is one approach at safeguarding the future of the aquifer.
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So much for your “dust bowl” theory re: the Ogallala. The “dust bowl” was caused by a variety of factors including drought and very poor farming methods at the time.
The last sentence you point to states: “The prospects for the future of the Ogallala aquifer ultimately depend upon its management by each of its water users.”
As demand increases all over the U.S. for irrigation and to quench the thirst of a growing population, the “water users” will withdraw increasing amounts of water, thus causing further groundwater depletion.
Water will continue to be withdrawn from the Ogallala for irrigation and for people and livestock. Yes, management of that important water source is very important and hopefully the “water users” have realized that the Ogallala, like all aquifers is not infinite.
It is vital that all the aquifers are effectively managed, otherwise we could see water and food shortages, maybe not in our lifetimes, but certainly the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren. I suggest you obtain a copy of the WRAC Report of November 2006 from the county for information pertaining to the aquifers we use in Charles County. You may also want to obtain copies of some of the numerous MGS reports that are referenced.
I am a realist, and I don’t put my head in the sand and sit around waiting for others to do what should have been done decades ago - control development and conserve our precious groundwater resource as much as possible.
