Wow. That does look very dry. Excellent photos Zane!

- Joseph

Zane,

Very good looking photos!

My iPAD captured a small glimpse on my last Oregon/Washington State flight.

09-JUNE-2015 (-12 days summer solstice)

Mt. Saint Helen, WA :


Looking east from 6,500' MSL. Columbia River WA/OR :

8GCBC wrote:Mt. Saint Helen, WA :

I think you mean Mt. Rainer

How much water in the river (East Fork Lewis?) at Daybreak?

@hotrod180 The river was a little low.

robw56 wrote:

8GCBC wrote:Mt. Saint Helen, WA :

I think you mean Mt. Rainer

Whoops! Thank you for the clarification! Wrong volcano (so many up there).

I love me some PNW. Can't wait to get back there and fly again.

Low snowpack means less water available means some tough decisions. Take Port Townsend-- the city gets it's water from the Big Quilcene River 20 or more miles away from town. Crown Zellerbach built the pipeline back in the late 1920's when they were building their paper mill in town. The mill has changed hands several times, but as I understand it these days the city owns the pipeline but the paper mill operates & maintains it in return for a lion's share of the water. According to a recent article in the local paper, the city uses about a million gallons of water a day...vs about 7 million used by the paper mill (even with their conservation measures in place). If the available water supply gets down to where it's not enough to supply both, which I don't think has ever happened, there was talk about shutting down the mill. Unfortunately the mill is the biggest private employer in the county, which means that a lot of people will be going without a paycheck. And in spite of the somewhat recent influx of well-off retirees, this is basically still a working class town, so the trickle-down theory means that the mill closure will hurt everyone.

One of my close friends manages one of the irrigation districts in the Gorge area west of Hood. He had to cut the water going to the farms and orchards by 30-50%. He said it is pretty dire.

I have been flying around the Frank on 4th of July for many years and have never seen that little snow in the mountains before. I felt sorry for the rafters on the Selway. It was way too bony to get laden rafts down.

The situation in Southern California is a whole other deal. I can imagine that they will be forced to start large scale desalination operations, which will drive food prices up and also result in more greenhouse emissions.

Where are they going to put one of these?



We have a pretty strong legacy of manipulating the environment to accommodate us. Nature can certainly push back at times. It's a good thing that we are also able to adapt.

Scolopax wrote:..........The situation in Southern California is a whole other deal. I can imagine that they will be forced to start large scale desalination operations, which will drive food prices up and also result in more greenhouse emissions. Where are they going to put one of these?
..........

Where is that one located?
There are some pretty desolate sections of pacific shoreline in California, or at least there were back 25 o so years ago when I lived there. The problem is not gonna be where to build the desalination plant, it's gonna be connecting it to the existing aquaduct infrastructure, all of which is in the central valley or the eastern Sierra's / Mojave Desert region. Unfortunately there's not much salt water in either of those places to desalinate.....

hotrod180 wrote:

Scolopax wrote:..........The situation in Southern California is a whole other deal. I can imagine that they will be forced to start large scale desalination operations, which will drive food prices up and also result in more greenhouse emissions. Where are they going to put one of these?
..........

Where is that one located?

That desalination plant supplies Dubai with fresh water.

It seems that with strong economies, humans continue to turn to exploitation of energy resources to meet the agricultural needs of big populations. Then the exploitation of resources makes weak economies strong. It is a convenient arrangement that favors and promotes growth. It is very interesting to observe.

Not the summer's fault...it didn't snow this past winter. Too warm and not much precip

I understand Mt Hood closed their ski area about a month earlier than normal.

25 years ago one of my profs predicted that Canada would become a fresh water superpower. I expect that we'll start importing water via pipelines from Canada as it would be cheaper than building desalinization plants.

Nice pictures everyone.

hotrod180 wrote:[ The problem is not gonna be where to build the desalination plant, it's gonna be connecting it to the existing aquaduct infrastructure, all of which is in the central valley or the eastern Sierra's / Mojave Desert region. Unfortunately there's not much salt water in either of those places to desalinate.....

Probably not enough volume to make the economics work for agriculture....but I'd like to see more produced saltwater from California's oil and Gas production be recycled. Right now we just waste energy to pump it right back down hole.

Not to go on a tangent, but if one of our sharp Bay Area engineers/scientists can figure out an inexpensive way to re-cycle frac water for potable uses; that would be transformative. Then, if one of his buddies can figure out a cheap way to liquefy natural gas in BCF quantities for export.....well that would be the truly defining technology of a generation. Sorry for the tangent.

fiftynineSC wrote:Then, if one of his buddies can figure out a cheap way to liquefy natural gas in BCF quantities for export.....well that would be the truly defining technology of a generation. Sorry for the tangent.

Yeah, the physics are a bitch on that one. But if anyone were able to crack the code it would be transformative.

Been reading many recent reports of salmon dying off due to hot water in rivers.

They may be hiding in small creeks behind the dams but word is some of the upland lakes my have no Chinook or sockeye making it back this year.

This can be a real disaster for not only the salmon but the fishermen and other species that depend on them.

It is NOT GOOD up here.

Farmers in the Yakima area are really hurting due to low river flows and it is only the beginning of August. We have two more dry months ahead of us.

TD

Do you guys need oxygen over there above 10 000 feet?

Where only allowed above 10 000 if pressurised or carrying oxygen

Only required for >30 min above 12,500 and all the time above 14,000.