Tropical Storms Invade Hawaiian Waters: The Role of El Nino

Some moisture from the eastern storm [Maria] extends into southern California, which is going to get some rain as a result …

Oh my, where to even begin on this one? Heaven help us!

If Meteorologist Cliff Mass, from his home on the Olympic Peninsula of Cascadia, wanted to help us the Desert [sic] Southwest, he could do much worse than to start with NAWAPA [1964], the great North-American Waterworks & Power [Agenda] that was on JFK’s desk and in his speeches right up until that tragic November day in Dallas, A.D. 1963. That’s +63 years of Bad Luck!

The hydrological challenge of the Intermountain West has always been one of distribution, storage & flood-control, all the way from the E.-Alaskan-Yukon frontier in the Sub-Arctic, down thru B.C./Alberta, then E.-Washington / Idaho / W.-Montana to the Great Basin (of NV/UT/CO-W.Slope) and finally Arizona – NW-N.M. – Sonora, just touching upon Alta/Baja-California’s Mojave (true) Desert. Envisioned were a long pearl-necklace chain of reservoirs dwarfing in capacity even the Hoover / Lake Mead & Glen Canyon / Lake Powell complexes finished 6+ decades ago.

The Great Canals & Reservoirs to be built, in accordance to the Parsons NAWAPA plans, were firstly Flood-Control, second Irrigation-Storage, third HydroElectric Power, and fourth Recreational boating / Fish & Game.

Growing up as the Son / Grandson of Arizona Watermen, I could recount the horrific flooding that typically begins in September-October, when the Monsoon season should be winding down but instead launches one Tropical Cyclone after another against the steep mountain terrain. The existing reservoirs have no way to contain the runoff from such deluges, and so release the floodwaters down the river channels, washing out every bridge & road, every industrial site, each farm-orchard-ranch, and even whole communities standing along the banks. And yet we rebuild, every time …

The entire history of the settlement of the Intermountain West, extending even across the Sierra Nevada, into California’s San Joaquin (Central) Valley, has been dominated by water projects: Dams & Levees & Canal networks that build upon a vast pre-historic civilization’s channels.

In 1975, after one set of particularly historic floods, the U.S. Congress authorized construction of new & raised dams [‘Orme’] at the conjunction of the Rivers – Verde & Salt (Salado). But in ’77, President Jimmy Carter struck those from the Authorization (funds). At the time, our local Representative (Rhodes) & Senator (Goldwater) warned: these Projects were necessary, and would have to be built someday, at even greater expense; that our grandchildren will see the day that they are built. And now, here we are, many millions (population growth since then) as dangerously exposed as ever, and with no way to store the runoff and protect the low-lying areas.

You will read from sources that the NAWAPA was a ridiculous fantasy that could never be needed — because Climate-Change! — or afforded, much less completed, or that it would ‘rob’ the Pacific Northwest – Canada – Alaska. Never trust these sources, but rather track down the political roots of their objections, in the regional politics … remembering that the thieving national governments of {CDN, USA, MEX} have never cared a whit for anything but cheaply exploiting the mineral riches & beauty of the Region, turning the peoples against each other across state & tribal boundaries, buying & selling them off separately, in divide-&-conquer fashion. Everything you may read about California’s present troubles are multiplied with distance from the Pacific Coast.

Thanks for reading, and for attempting to comprehend a Problem-in-Scale that defies our Geographical Imagination.

Sincerely, — (signed) RLW, entirely AI-unaided