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Monster Media 1996 #14
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Monster Media No. 14 (April 1996) (Monster Media, Inc.).ISO
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math
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wethr53a.zip
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WETH-1.___
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DROUGHT.TXT
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1995-09-04
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DROUGHT
Many water resource organizations feel that by the year
2005, the western, and in particular, the southwestern
states will be suffering from times of severe drought.
Arizona currently gets most of its water from an
'underground lake', better known as groundwater. That
groundwater is recharged from rain and snowmelt. With
the state's tremendous growth, however, the water removed
from the ground exceeds what is recharged back into the
system by about 3.5 times. Arizona also pumps water from
the Colorado River. Unless the state can secure more water
rights, agriculture will suffer. How? First, agriculture
uses about 75 to 85 percent of the state's water. If the
cities continue to grow at the current rate, the general
population will demand more of the available water; thus,
leaving the farmers with less and less. The state is
currently well known for its tomatoes, corn, carrots,
and many other valuable foods we all eat.
Much of what applies to Arizona also goes for California.
Southern and central California get their water from
groundwater, the aqueduct from the mountains in the north
half of the state, and from the Colorado River. Again,
most of the water is used by agriculture, not by Los
Angeles, San Diego or other major cities.
What about taking sea water and making it useable? The
military and some Saudi Arabian countries do it. In many
cases, the military MUST do it because of the unknown and
adverse conditions they find themselves in. The middle
eastern countries are, in many cases, true deserts that
stretch for hundreds and hundreds of miles straight.
Being that the closest fresh water may be in a neighboring
country, desalination is many times a MUST. The cost of
taking the salt out of sea water is tremendous. It takes a
lot of energy, and at this point, water desalination for
the United States is far away from being a reality.
What about seeding the clouds to create more rain? Cloud
seeding is and has been done for many decades. It is
accomplished in many ways; one such way is to disperse a
variation of salt (often sodium iodide) from an airplane
flying through the clouds. In some cases, cloud seeding
has appeared to work, and in other cases, it has shown
little value. In addition, there are potential legal
problems. Consider that southern California does a
massive cloud seeding and it worked. The remaining clouds
continue on their way to Arizona but those clouds now have
less water in them than if California hadn't done any
seeding. Does California owe anything to Arizona for
taking the water? If drought occurs in Arizona, is
California responsible? Who owns clouds--the state, the
person who owns the land the cloud is passing over, the
federal government?
Have you noticed that all these water related problems
have one thing in common? If your area does not have
enough water, you have to get it from somewhere else.
When you add up all the water that an area receives,
it's called a 'Water Budget'. It is very simple to
understand -- if a city, farmer, or a home with a well
exceeds their budget, someone suffers because there is not
enough water to go around. An area can not continue to take
more water out of an area than goes into that area for very
long.
The growth of the population in areas of the western
United States is a prime example of the problem. The
usage of water that has been occuring simply cannot be
sustained forever. There is a limit, and we're starting
to see it.
FLOODING
-f
Flooding comes in several different forms. River banks
and natural washes have a water level that is called
'Bank Full'. Once that amount is exceeded, water spills
out of the waterway causing damage to houses, farmland and
whatever else is in the way. The water level that a
particular river can safely handle without exceeding
'bank full' is determined by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Excessive snowmelt or long rainy seasons can cause seasonal
flooding where streams and rivers go over 'bank full',
sometimes causing millions of dollars in damage.
Flash Floods happen where flooding occurs quickly. Flash
flooding tends to occur in desert areas such as those
found in the southwestern section of the USA. These areas
go for long periods of time with little or no rainfall.
Little vegetation grows to slow the water. When a heavy
rain comes, the soil cannot absorb the water quickly
enough and it runs quickly downhill into the nearest
water path. Many times people will camp in a dry
riverbed and not think about the flood potential. If
fortunate, they may hike away from their campsite for a
little while, then get a heavy rain and their belongings
are washed away. If the rains occur at night as they
sleep, they could be in serious danger. Flash floods
usually last for a short period of time and are rather
localized to one area; yet of all the types of floods,
they kill the most people.
Occasionally, the National Weather Service issues a 'Flash
Flood Watch' which means there is the potential for
flooding--but the situation is not too extreme at that time.
They also issue a 'Flash Flood Warning' which is to be
taken seriously. This means other floods have been
reported in the area, and it is definitely time to prepare.
If a true flood occurs, you may have less than 5 minutes
to get out of the area before disaster happens.
There are also flooding 'flukes' such as what happened
along the Mississippi, Missouri and other rivers in July
of 1993. These are true disasters; they cover massive
areas of land, devastate livelihoods, cause huge
transportation set-backs, pollute drinking water supplies
for hundreds-of-thousands (or millions) of people, and
destroy everything in their path. In these rare flood
types, dams and levees suddenly break from the constant
pressure, and flash flooding is a hazard in addition to
the wide, slow-moving flooding. The United States
averages about 2 billion dollars in damage from flooding
each year. At this writing (July 1993), the damage from
the 1992 Mississippi Basin flood is totaled at over 10
billion ($10,000,000,000) dollars! That dollar figure
may go higher.
While these types of large-scale floods surprise many
people, researchers are very aware of them and know
approximately how often they will occur. When a city
such as Des Moines, Iowa builds a levee to contain water,
it is built with a certain flood level in mind. There
are certain federal minimum standards that must be met,
but the city may choose to build a larger and better
quality levee which will last longer. Since scientists
and levee designers have predicted how often massive
floods occur in a given area, they have an indication
of how long that levee will last. No matter how big or
strong a man-made levee is made, eventually the strength
of the water will win--the wall will collapse and the
river will regain the easiest course to the ocean. Levees
are not permanent, nor are dams, or even river banks.
Over the millions of years the earth has existed, the
rivers have continued to change course on a regular
basis and they will do the same in the future.
-=-