Water, water everywhere…

I’ve been a collector of good ideas for as long as I can remember. But just like an on switch cannot exist without an off, or an up without a down, for every positive idea there has to be at least one that may need a bit more consideration.

I think we can all agree that the availability of water is at or near the top of EVERY list of critical items; be it for agriculture, fire suppression, an individual, a municipal system slaking the needs of millions… to an entire state or nation.

Which brings us to California — famous for many things; including enough husbandry to feed the world, Mickey Mouse, earthquakes, and far too many thirsty users for the little water it has to satiate all the various needs.

I recently saw an interesting suggestion on desertsun.com suggesting that California tap fresh water from the mouths of rivers in the Pacific Northwest and pipe it south. The article specifically mentioned the Columbia, stating that “per the U.S. Geological Survey, 123 million gallons of freshwater flow out of the Columbia River into the Pacific every minute!” That’s certainly a lot, and would surely help alleviate some of California’s critical water shortage.

The article goes on to say that while a surface pipeline would be “too expensive,” a “plastic hose” could be laid underwater along the coast. The author suggests that there would be no “land acquisition costs or right-of-way issues,” and that such a conduit would be flexible, which would take care of any potential disruptions from earthquakes.

The commentary goes on to quite adequately address several more issues. These included the need for pumps (“but that’s done with pipelines everywhere”), and the proposal that, since the pipeline would be “somewhat buoyant,” suspending it above the seafloor so as not to interfere with shipping and the local flora and fauna.

All very good points, but I got stuck on the quake potential.

All may be well and good south of the Mendocino Triple Junction, where the San Andreas moves the seismic threat onshore (and strike-slip transform faults don’t generally produce a tsunami anyway).

But what about to the north, where the Cascadia Subduction Zone marks the boundary between the North American Plate and the seafloor under the Pacific? (Feel free to refer to a previous blog post for some additional background information about West Coast Tectonics.)

While a pipeline suspended above the seafloor may survive the initial shaking (or maybe not), what about the tsunami which is sure to follow? While I absolutely promise a future blog on the reality of a tsunami, to get us past this post it is important to note that — because of the physics involved — a tsunami disrupts the entire water column, from the seafloor where it begins to the surface where it can flood the coast.

Obviously I don’t know for sure (no one does), and installing such a “hose” might be a valid idea anyway (assuming the inescapable legal and environmental hurdles can be surmounted), but let’s not casually assume that anything humans attach to the seafloor will survive the inevitable Cascadia event.