Davin News Server

On 8/30/2024 3:04 AM, Intelligent Party wrote:
> On 8/22/2024 11:58 AM, Intelligent Party wrote:
>> On 8/22/2024 11:45 AM, Intelligent Party wrote:
>>> Raise Lake Shasta 200 Feet and thereby add 10 million acre feet of
>>> water.
>>>
>>> Put in the Ah Pah Dam and thereby add 15 million acre feet of water.  On
>>> the Klamath River and form a scenic lake.
>>>
>>> Put in the Dos Rios Reservoir and thereby add 7 million acre feet of
>>> water.  On the Eel River
>>>
>>> Do these projects and then there will be enough water for the Peripheral
>>> Canal, and a fledgling UC Fresno.
>>>
>>>
>>> These would be Federal Water Programs, and there is runoff for the
>>> State.  These are huge projects like the Hoover Dam, yet desperately
>>> needed if we are to have an Empire of 40 million people in California as
>>> we have.
>>>
>>> The farmers are 80% of the water, and are Federal water.
>>> The homes are 20% of the water, and are State water.
>>> There is runoff from Federal to State.
>>>
>>>
>>> For comparison purposes, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the nation's two
>>> largest reservoirs are 25 million Acre Feet of water each.
>>
>>
>> Here is pertinent intelligence accumulated so far, on, ca.water:
>> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ca.water/y5tkrEW4Gkk
>
>
>
> The Hoover Dam cost $49 million to build in 1930, equal to $860 million
> today.  Per Quora, we think it would cost much more today, closer to $10
> billion.
> https://www.quora.com/How-much-would-it-cost-to-build-the-Hoover-Dam-from-scratch-in-todays-dollars-and-under-todays-construction-rules
>
>
> If it cost $10 Billion
>
> The San Diego County Carlsbad Desalinization plant cost about $1 billion
> to build
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_%22Bud%22_Lewis_Carlsbad_Desalination_Plant
>
>
> It produces 50 million gallons of fresh water per day or 18.25 billion
> per year.
>
> If a dam allowing storage of 10 million acre feet, such as the Hoover
> Dam cost $10 billion to build, we calculate that 1 acre foot of water is
> 325,851 gallons, and 10 million acre feet of water 3,258,509,400,000,
> 3.2 Trillion gallons of stored water.
>
> We also calculate that 10 such desalinization plants as the one in San
> Diego County, costing $10 billion total, would produce 18.25 billion x
> 10, 182.5 billion gallons of fresh water per year.  Or 500,000,000
> gallons x 365 days, also 182,500,000,000 gallons yearly.
>
> We thus conclude, that because 3.2 trillion gallons is 17.85 times 182.5
> billion gallons, dams still make more sense that desalinization plants.
>
>
> If you were storing only 1 million acre feet, it would still be 1.785
> time more water to have damns.
>
> Maybe we can build desalinization plants more efficiently in the future?
>  Maybe there are economies of scale?
>
> If you stored 10 million acre feet, and the dam only cost $1 billion it
> would be 178.5 times more water.  However, we should not build damns
> that fail, and it should be a Federal project.
>
>
> If there is anything wrong with this analysis, please correct it.


We have to consider capacity vs. yield.

This 1979 New York Times article states:
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/01/18/archives/us-may-add-200-feet-to-a-coast-dam-cheaper-alternative.html


"Many possibilities for tapping more water from the rushing northern 
rivers are under consideration. An increasingly plausible one, engineers 
say, would be to add about 200 feet to the height of Shasta Dam. That 
would triple its storage capacity to 14 million acre‐feet, more than 
one‐third of the state's annual consumption, and would increase the 
reservoir's annual yield of four million acre‐feet some 25 percent." 
January 18, 1979

This states a 300% increase in capacity, but only a 25% increase in yield!

This may not be the same for the Klammath River, which is dumping water 
into the ocean, but the Desalinization numbers above are all yield!

Dams also give hydroelectric power which desalinization doesn't.

"The study even advances the possibility, by adding 300 feet to the 
dam's height instead of 200, of increasing the storage capacity more 
than sixfold, to 27 million acre‐feet."


"The 200‐foot addition would double the area of Lake Shasta, to 90 
square miles."

"The 45-square-mile lake is California's biggest reservoir, storing the 
equivalent of more than one‐tenth of the state's annual consumption of 
water."

"The study is only a prospectus. If considered promising, it would be 
followed by a four‐year feasibility study, two years of public review 
and Congressional consideration, four years of design work, six years of 
construction time, and four years of filling the reservoir to its 
planned operating level. Actual operation, then, would be at least 20 
years away." - 1979


33 year old Dam then, is now 78 years old now.  Hoover Dam in Nevada is 
93 years old.

California uses is 40 million acre feet of water per year, and this has 
not increased in 50 years, even as the population has doubled.
See chart on 2nd page:
https://cwc.ca.gov/-/media/CWC-Website/Files/Documents/2019/06_June/June2019_Item_12_Attach_2_PPICFactSheets.pdf


"The dam, 3,400 feet across its rim, impounds in Lake Shasta 4.5 million 
acre feet of water, normally releasing it at the staggering rate of 
79,000 cubic feet a second. An acre‐foot is some 325,000 gallons, equal 
to an acre of water a foot deep."

4.5 million acre feet = 1.46 Trillion gallons.