Tom Finneran: Water, Water, Everywhere - More Precious Than Gold
Friday, September 12, 2014
The pictures tell the story. They also raise the age-old American question: how do we fix this?
Deadly drought afflicts the Western states. Out there - in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, California, Utah, Nevada - water is more precious than gold. Every year, even in so-called “wet years’, those states fight to the death about “water rights”. Elsewhere, in practically every other state, either torrential rain or massive snowfall can create destructive run-off year after year after year.
Can these two predictable facts be married into a solution? Why not?
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAmerican can-do ingenuity is legendary. The world stands agape at American innovation and attitude. From war to space exploration to medical science, American imagination propels and improves the world. Can we not figure out the challenge of water?
Once upon a time Massachusetts bet on its future with the design and construction of the Quabbin Reservoir. That bet has paid off a million times over. Once upon an even longer time ago, the Romans bet on their future with the creation of the legendary aqueducts of Europe. That bet too paid off for the Romans, at least until Nero came along and screwed things up…
Let’s start with sheer scale. New Englanders are often stunned at the size of the Western states. We think that Maine is “huge” and that all of New England is pretty darn impressive in its scale. Yet the reality of life west of the Mississippi is this---Texas alone at 267 thousand square miles is more than four times bigger than the six New England states combined ( a mere 65 thousand square miles)! Or take the six Western states I named which carry a total square mileage of more than 800 thousand square miles, more than twelve times larger than all of New England.
Yet no one should be daunted by the sheer size of those Western states for the history and science of the Quabbin’s founding and success demonstrates a sustainable contribution to the problem of water for the Western states. The Quabbin, fed by the Swift River, was started around 1930 and it became operational around 1939. Its size, while impressive to gaze upon, is a mere 39 square miles, yet it meets the water needs of most of Eastern Massachusetts’ three million people and its industries. A Quabbin reservoir in Texas would be more valuable than an oil strike. And Texas, with its massive size, could do ten Quabbins in its sleep. Sure the soil and topography are different and there is no inexhaustible Swift River to tap into but more modest streams and of course the dangerous run-off from epic storms can be partially diverted and stored, steadily building up crucial reserves over a ten to twenty year period.
Or consider pipelines. America presently pumps millions of barrels of oil through the Alaska pipeline. New England receives abundant natural gas in pipelines, which originate in the Deep South. These are pipelines which run for many hundreds of miles over, under, and through some rugged terrain. If such pipelines have safely delivered such environmentally worrisome products as oil and gas over many years, then the delivery of water from water-rich Northern states to water-poor Western states should be a snap.
Could not these large Western states excavate a strategic ring of reservoirs for their current needs and future growth? Could not natural caverns be used for water storage? More recently covered reservoirs have come into vogue to address both evaporation and security concerns. And in a nation, which has embraced the wisdom - indeed the necessity - of building large strategic petroleum reserves against unexpected emergencies, it seems prudent to address other more prosaic concerns.
Canada might consider its abundant water resource as a new export commodity. I’d guess that Michigan and Minnesota could also provide valuable supplies. Indeed, when one considers that the Swift River’s “excess” flow is not diverted once the Quabbin is full, might not Massachusetts want to consider a second Quabbin project, perhaps to address its internal needs (Cape Cod), or, alternatively to develop an export to some very prosperous states that crave our water wealth.
Such a project would require vision, patience, and customers. I’m not sure where to secure the first two elements but I know where there are millions of very thirsty customers right now. They’re parched for what we have…
Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.
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