Hacker News Reader

Comment by yellowapple | Hacker News Reader

And that doesn't even begin to factor in the revenue opportunities from scaling up desalination further for export to neighboring states (most of which are even more arid than California).

I've said it before and I'll say it again: California food and (desalinated) water in exchange for Nevada electricity (be it solar, geothermal, or nuclear) would mutually benefit both states and produce one hell of an economic juggernaut.

View on HN

Pumping water from the California coast to Nevada is not a good idea. You’re basically describing a hydro plant, in reverse, carrying expensive water.

Not really much different than pumping Owen's valley water to LA...

A quick google search says Owen's valley is at 4k feet, while LA is at 300. I assume that reversing that would be incredibly expensive, considering the 570,000 acre-feet/year that flows is 1.5 trillion lbs of water.

So, I think it depends on where it's being pumped from/to.

There are mountains in the way though.

We'll just use the same boring machines we'd use for the long-overdue SF/NY Burrito Pipeline.

Parts of Nevada are below sea level so the total energy expenditure to move water should be "minimal". This would be after making aqueducts. My thinking is, if the Romans could move water over mountains without pipes, so too can the Americans.

Which parts of Nevada are below sea level? Lowest point IIRC is around 400ft.

Not anywhere near where the people live, that’s for sure.

Reno: 4500’

Vegas: 2000’

that’s a huge amount of potential energy to pump water from the sea

Plus the whole Sierra Nevada mountains thing. Between Sacramento and Reno Interstate 80 peaks over 7000 feet.

California's existing aqueduct system already moves water over greater distances. If Northern California can supply Southern California's water, then so can Coastal California supply water for Inland California and beyond.

Hell...

Lake Lahontan. Megalake. Barely alive. Gentlemen, we can refill it. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic lake. Lake Lahontan will be that lake. Better than it was before. Wider. Deeper. Wetter.

jazzy intro music

There's the small problem of it being much more difficult for water to go up a mountain than down it.

That's where Nevada being a giant blob of untapped geothermal energy (not to mention open desert for solar and nuclear) comes in.

I mean the aqueduct system already pumps water up 1900 feet over the Tehachapi mountains[0], so that might be hard but feasible.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonston_Pumping_Plant

It also makes no sense because it would be cheaper and easier to just ween California off the Colorado river which already passes through Nevada and other states in the southwest.

I think this is the easiest solution to the water problem there. You already effectively have a massive pipeline in the form of a river. Luckily, the state with coastal access has the highest water allocation for it.

So we sell them the water from the Colorado river, and use the money to build power plants there, with which we will power our expanded desalination for the benefit of agribusiness foreign and domestic?

I mean, it would probably work, right?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com