What President Trump Can Do With The American System 2.0 - Flipbook - Page 23
Vast New Freshwater Supplies
nent, with the Northwest (from Oregon to Alaska) having over 10 times the freshwater river
runo昀昀 into the oceans as the Southwest (from
California to Sinaloa in Mexico). NAWAPA was
designed to mitigate this great western freshwater discrepancy by redirecting about 10 percent
of total northwestern runo昀昀 (about 20 percent of
a selection of rivers) throughout the Southwest
United States and Northern Mexico. Canada
would bene昀椀t with opportunities for economic
development of untouched resources and abundant cheap hydroelectric power.2
The original NAWAPA design would bring the
equivalent of 7 or 8 additional Colorado Rivers
throughout the Southwest, ensuring that existing
rivers in the region can be revitalized, groundwater
stores could be replenished, and new territories can
be developed.
The availability of fresh water has become a
limiting factor for a major part of our nation.
Over the past 25 years, an average of 43 percent
of the United States was, at least, considered abnormally dry, and 26 percent was in some level
of drought. Beyond drought for a quarter of our
national territory, large regions of the country
are dependent on underground aquifers that
are being depleted. For example, between California’s Central Valley, the Colorado River basin, and the Ogallala Aquifer (covering much of
the Great Plains), groundwater stores are being
withdrawn at rates faster than they’re being replenished.
The rate of groundwater depletion throughout the
Great Plains and the West is nearly comparable to
having a second Colorado River 昀氀owing out of the
ground—meaning this region is already in need of 2. See NAWAPA XXI, 2012 report by LaRouchePAC; and
a second Colorado River just to break even in terms Deniston, Benjamin, “Solve the World Water Crisis,” Executive Intelligence Review, Vol. 42, No. 5, January 30, 2015.
of water use (not accounting for
growth). For decades, the West
has faced recurring water
emergencies, and serious measures to deal with the crisis
can’t wait any longer. Policies
of conservation, recycling, and
increasing e昀케ciency can’t address the core issue; we need
to develop vast new supplies
of fresh water for 25 percent to
40 percent of our nation’s territory. The good news is that
the necessary actions to resolve
this crisis exist and are already
known. There are two obvious
ways to do this: coastal desalination projects and large-scale
water transfer projects. Let’s
start with the grand vision for a
continental-scale river management system designed in the
1960s and known as the North
American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA).
The basic design of NAWAPA
centers around balancing the
North American Water &
irregularity of freshwater 昀氀ows
Power Alliance (NAWAPA)
in the western half of our contiPromethean Action
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