The Active Climate Rescue Initiative: Move the Water! has two places in SW-USA, and one in NW-MX where moving water with gravity can improve the local environment: Rehydrate deserts; Bring clean fresh rain and snow; Reduce local temperatures. It is suggested that accomplishing the goals of Move the Water! will break the SW-USA mega-drought and reduce wildfire risk while creating a local environment which will work to oppose global warming.
Laguna Salada, Baja, MX
The first place for implementing Move the Water! is in Baja, MX. Located there is Laguna Salada, a below sea-level depression which until recently has been full of salt water. Laguna Salada has lost its inflow and has become dry because of the massive draws of water from the Colorado River. The Colorado River is depleted before it reaches the fill point for Laguna Salada, and clearly never reaches the ocean. It is our belief that this unintended environmental disaster has damaged the SW-USA water-cycle and is a major contributing cause of the mega-drought. Correlative data shows Laguna Salada dry since 1999, and the mega-drought beginning in 2000. Laguna Salada can be refilled with ocean water inexpensively by reversing the flow of the Coyote Canal. This will allow ocean water to enter Laguna Salada. It is known that evaporated moisture from Laguna Salada is a major source of the rain which falls on California’s Imperial Valley. With Laguna Salada dry, the Imperial Valley farmers must rely on increased irrigation from the Colorado River.
Salton Sea, CA, USA
The Salton Sea, called an accidental sea, is the second place for implementing Move the Water! Refilling the Salton Sea to its historic level via a metered gravity flow canal from Laguna Salada, Baja, MX will have multiple benefits to the local area. A refilled Salton Sea would revitalize the local economy, but it also would add more evaporative moisture, which means more rain and snow for replenishing the freshwater aquifers and reduced irrigation requirements by the farmers. The refilled Salton Sea would no longer be a source of toxic dust, and the ocean water will reduce the salinity of the sea allowing a better environment for fish and birds. The evaporated moisture would also blow north up California’s Central Valley delivering its benefits to all who work and reside there.
Great Salt Lake, UT, USA
Most of the proposals of Move the Water! involve moving ocean water inland, but in this one case Move the Water! suggests moving fresh water. Move the Water! usually thinks that moving freshwater is an abhorrent idea causing some very nasty unintended consequences. In this case, the water moved will be returning to its original source via the existing natural hydrologic cycle. Oversimply stated, the evaporated moisture blows NW and is deposited as snow in the mountains where the Snake River originates. So the water cycle is, and would be, evaporate from the Great Salt Lake, rain/snow on mountains, collect into the Snake River, flow back to the Great Salt Lake to be evaporated again. Typically, the moisture filling the Great Salt Lake originates from moisture within the Great Basin, but with the event of the mega-drought the water within the Great Basin has been diminished, as has the Great Salt Lake. Records of the surface level of the Great Salt Lake and of the Snake River Aquifer indicate that as the Great Salt Lake surface level decreases, so does the level of the Snake River Aquifer. Thus to replenish the Snake River Aquifer, one must replenish the Great Salt Lake. There is available a path where a 60-mile-long canal can be installed from the Snake River to the Great Salt Lake with minimal effort.
Death Valley, CA/NV, USA
Move the Water! primarily promotes gravity flow for the water movement. In the case of Death Valley pipes and pumps will be required, but this is imperative that this be accomplished. It is postulated by Active Climate Rescue Initiative that the mega-drought with the accompanying domino-droughts is an unintended negative consequence of the over-drawing of water from the Colorado River. Move the Water! proposes to add moisture into the Great Basin by pumping polluted salt water from the Salton Sea, CA, USA. This will first benefit the Salton Sea by providing an outlet/flow-through which will help maintain and reduce its pollutants. The water pumped into Death Valley will evaporate and leave the salt and pollutants behind in a place where they can do little damage. The evaporated moisture beginning at Death Valley will circulate within the Great Basin and will eventually be blown north into the headwaters of the Colorado River. This pumping of water is necessary because of the over-drawing of water from the Colorado River, so it should be funded through the Bureau of Reclamation by a tax on water removed from the Colorado River. For each gallon of water removed, one gallon must be pumped into Death Valley. It is expected that over time this will break the mega-drought and refill the Colorado River.