Has Donald Trump Resurrected Nawawpa ?
Recently Donald Trump boasted how he would bring Canadian water to drought stricken areas of California and the US South West. “Good gravy” I said to myself, I am sure I have heard all this before. And sure enough, I have. Back in the 1960’s at about the same time the Columbia River Treaty was being considered between Canada and the US, another scheme far more outlandish came to the surface. An engineering company in Pasadena called Parsons proposed the North American Water and Power Alliance. It was truly a grand scheme that would have affected every watershed in North America. A series of Dams, tunnels, diversions massive pumps and canals would redistribute water from the moister parts of the continent to places where it is needed more. Places where rivers go to die like Southern California and Arizona. People will be skeptical but hold on – a lot of Nawapa has already been built Think of Mica and Revelstoke Dams as well as the Duncan and Libby Dams. Flooding of the Rocky Mountain Trench is a major part of the plan. What is truly frightening is that the plan will likely happen because it is sorely needed. All the swimming pools in Phoenix and LA have to be filled. But seriously there is an endless need for water in food producing lands which seem to be drying out as we speak. Much more conservation and management should be applied but will it? Will the Columbia River the greatest fish stream on earth ever be restored or will it end up as a ditch like the Colorado where people fight over the last drop of muddy water. Parson is quick to point out that NAWAPA is continental scale undertaking and should not be deterred by local concerns. I wonder if this means tat Canadians will, for example, have input to land use decisions in the San Juaquin Valley or Texas. That would be interesting but if Kootenay Lake is going to end up in a bean field, Canada should at least have some input – indeed. I once lived in the Santa Clara V and watched in horror as some of the most productive land I will ever see was just pissed away for freeways, malls and endless housing development. Nobody said a word, if you mentioned planning you were classed as a communist conspirator who should be taken out and shot. They couldn’t get the bulldozers smashing the orchards down fast enough
What I suppose will happen is that the US, Canada and Mexico will become one country Start the party!
Ted Burns