https://www.yahoo.com/tech/exclusive-william-shatners-30-billion-116672789084.html

“So I’m starting a Kickstarter campaign. I want $30 billion … to build a pipeline like the Alaska pipeline. Say, from Seattle — a place where there’s a lot of water. There’s too much water. How bad would it be to get a large, 4-foot pipeline, keep it aboveground — because if it leaks, you’re irrigating!”

Me thinks the Capt. has been drinking too much.

 

The reveal is in the last paragraph:
“If I don’t make 30 billion, I’ll give the money to a politician who says, ‘I’ll build it.’

I don't think that's what politicians do with $30 billion.
Maybe Shatner has been lost in space for too long.

Let's hear from everybody in Washington State: Is it too soggy up there in the north-left corner?

 

Whatever happened to hauling icebergs around? I recall some chatter about that idea in the past. I think it would be cheaper than a pipeline, especially for a state with so much coastal access. Cut some ice, slap some sails on it, snag a polar bear and ride it down to San Francisco!

What Shatner is lacking is an understanding of the economics. Oil is worth a bit more than water, on a volumetric basis, despite what they might be thinking on the left coast.

 

if only some bright political leader in the Golden state had been able to foresee the need for more water as the states population grew these last 50 years. Better to have a really fast train right now that a few dozen people can ride around on than build a new reservoir.

 

california is already getting a lot of water from other states. maybe they should try to find other places to grow food than deserts. why build cities and farms in deserts? just because you can dont work if it dont rain regularly, and if it did rain regularly, it wouldnt be called a DESERT.

 

The ultimate expression of that idea.

 

The ultimate expression of that idea.

That HURT!

 

And when I point out things like that people always look at me like I'm a bad guy.

Oh well I guess thats the price I have to pay for having some degree of rational sense about life.

 

From what I understand, the environments haven't allowed any reservoirs to be built for decades.

They claim they emit too much methane.

 

From what I understand, the environments haven't allowed any reservoirs to be built for decades.

They claim they emit too much methane.

It's not the environments, it's the environmentalists.

Southern California has been taking water from other western states, including Colorado, for over a century now. The Hoover Dam was primarily for the purpose of enabling the diversion of massive amounts of water from the Colorado River to the Los Angeles area.

As for large water pipelines -- that's been done numerous times and places. Denver gets 40% of its water from Dillon reservoir which is located on the other side of the continental divide. A good portion of the western part of that diversion is via a pipeline that is something like eight feet in diameter (I haven't been able to track down the specs). Interestingly, the water crosses the Continental Divide three times in order to permit it to be gravity fed along the entire route.

 

They have plenty of water going to waste, recycle more.

 

They have plenty of water going to waste, recycle more.

I agree. The kneejerk reaction that so many people have to recycling waste water is completely irrational. Where do most communities get their water from? Rivers. Where do most communities dump their waste water? Rivers. So you ARE using the wastewater of every upstream community and always have been.

Now, they said that the filter tubes have holes that are 2 micron and that this is 1000x smaller than a human hair. I always thought that human hair was roughly 100 microns.

 

That's encouraging. It may not be the most economical source of water, but it could be replicated elsewhere a lot faster than a big infrastructure project and would continue to have value even if/when the drought ends.

 

It begs the question, though. If they can run municipal wastewater through it and get pure water out, why can't they run seawater through it? They make it sound like there are no limits on what can be used as input, but clearly there are.

 

And when I point out things like that people always look at me like I'm a bad guy.

That was back in the day before "political correctness" was as damaging as it is today. I'm sure it was seen as controversial by some, but the rant was funny - and I remembered it to this day - because of the truth it contained.

 

...why can't they run seawater through it?

It's just thermodynamics. Separation technologies decrease the entropy of the products and require energy to be consumed and entropy increased somewhere else. Nature is a bitch in that sense.

Membranes can desalinate, but that plant would probably need bigger pumps and a much different design to handle the much larger mass of retentate for a given amount of filtrate. I suspect the water entering that plant is the effluent from a traditional waste treatment plant, in other words it's pretty good to start with.

 

It begs the question, though. If they can run municipal wastewater through it and get pure water out, why can't they run seawater through it? They make it sound like there are no limits on what can be used as input, but clearly there are.

They can but the price increases almost exponentially as the purity decreases. We recycle used ultra-pure DI water for just about the price of the low pressure pump electricity. Converting city water to DI is at least 10 times the costs due higher pumping pressures, the type of filters and membranes that are needed for chlorine, chloramines and small particulates. Mildly toxic waste streams are at least 10x that cost with the increases mainly due to holding/settling tanks, neutralization and waste removal from easily fouled filters. Highly toxic water is in a different universe of cost.

 

The worlds Groundwater Crisis.

 

It begs the question, though. If they can run municipal wastewater through it and get pure water out, why can't they run seawater through it? They make it sound like there are no limits on what can be used as input, but clearly there are.

The problem with seawater is that there is a fair amount of salt dissolved in it (about 2%).

Waste water has a little salt, micro organisms, and other hazardous material. You remove the micro organisms with UV light. You get rid of the organic material with filters and activated charcoal (and the like).

You are left with water with a little bit of salt in it (probably less than 0.1%). Tastes great. Without salt, the water tastes different.

The same process with seawater still leaves a lot of salt in the water (about 2%). Tastes terrible. The difficult part is removing the salt to an acceptable level.

 

The problem with seawater is that there is a fair amount of salt dissolved in it (about 2%).

Waste water has a little salt, micro organisms, and other hazardous material. You remove the micro organisms with UV light. You get rid of the organic material with filters and activated charcoal (and the like).

You are left with water with a little bit of salt in it (probably less than 0.1%). Tastes great. Without salt, the water tastes different.

The same process with seawater still leaves a lot of salt in the water (about 2%). Tastes terrible. The difficult part is removing the salt to an acceptable level.

In vessels, sea water is heated under pressure, thus needing less temperature to boil. The resulting steam is condensed and the water coming out of it, after a chemical treatment is considered apt for the boilers. Water at that stage is not used for human consumption (drinking / cooking).

Those that tasted it, said that it had "too much taste" with added chemicals contributing to it.

Drinking water was received in port and kept in separate tanks. Related circuits were independent from the rest by keeping, besides closed valves, the eventual connection permanently blanked. Just after leaving Narvik bound to Argentina a smart engineer managed to pump 80 tons of sea water into our drinking water tanks with 300 tons. We had to enter Bergen to have good coffee in the mornings. Lucky us that we were so close from a port. Owners definitely angry.