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California desalination effort info release: Sea of Cortez to the Salton Sea channel

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 25, 2008 at 7:22 am

Please, folks, take this with a grain of salt. No, on second thought, grab the whole salt shaker…. From Helium.com:

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
To be placed in all California Newspapers as an informational news release

Announcing the release of information on a US & Mexico joint effort project known as the Sea of Cortez to the Salton Sea Desalination Channel

Let me point out that this “press release” is posted on Helium.com and not from the State of California. So what is this ‘channel’?

The Channel is a proposed project, a large canal actually, proposed to be built from the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, to, and as far north as, Palm Springs, California. Though, proposals vary, on its width, from between one to two miles wide, it will be deep enough for the largest of ships to travel. It is called a channel, instead of a canal, because that is the legal definition for such a project. On the United States side, it will run from the United States/Mexico border, just west of Calexico, northerly to Palm Desert, CA; 115 miles through Imperial County and, at least, 66 miles through Riverside County and, further if it goes to Palm Springs, CA. Upon the commitments of former President Fox and current President Lopez of Mexico, and Governor Eugenio Elorduy of the State of Baja, Mexico, the proponents, the National Outdoor Recreation Council (NORC), correctly assumed that there will be built, concurrently, a matching Mexican channel from the Gulf of California to the United States/Mexico border.

Okay…. a shipping channel from the Sea of Cortez to Palm Springs. An earlier post by the same person months ago talked of cruise ships docking in Indio and heading towards Indian casinos, along with a port 2 miles wide in El Centro…. This ‘press release’ continues, and tells of how the Clinton administration dissed the channel, but not Governor Schwarzenegger:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was first made aware of NORC’s Channel Proposal by DR. Abe Beagles on August 18, 2005. Dr. Beagles and a team of six international scientists had done an extensive reclamation study to see if either Electro-coagulation or the Plasma Incubator Reactor System, a revolutionary desalination process, could restore the Salton Sea.The report was then delivered to the Governor in 2003. Shortly after his personal examination and meetings with key individuals, throughout the United States and Mexico, he soon became convinced of both its validity and its potential but, was forewarned by the California Legislature against releasing it to the public until further, more thorough, examination by them. He acquiesced to their experienced judgment, in part. Indirectly, though, on January 5, 2006, he released, the Channel’s income potential, and some other aspects, in his State of the State address.

Hmmm… Schwarzenegger talking about the channel in his 2006 State of the State address? I guess me, you, and the entire media industry must have somehow missed that….

Throughout the following two years, the Governor only hinted, in public, about the forthcoming green technologies but, it wasn’t until his most recent State of the State address, on January 8, 2008, that he began to unveil the Channel. Therein, he revealed the need to re-build (to modernize) California’s antiquated water production and distribution system.

Ha! And you & I thought the Guv was only talking about a couple of new dams, but really he’s talking about the Salton Sea channel with the “Plasma Incubator Reaction System”! Talk about bait and switch…. So now, says this post, they need to set up “Harbor Improvement Districts” in Riverside, Imperial & San Diego counties, but they need public support for this:

Private Donations are Required to Form the Harbor Improvement Districts
NORC plans to process the Petitions to Form the Harbor Improvement Districts that are necessary, by law, to govern the construction and management of the Channel. They do not, however, have the funding to complete this monumental task, at present. As such, they will require significant (tax exempt) donations to perform this great task. Please support the Channel, and the development of its green technologies, by sending your donations directly to NORC.

And there’s even an address you can send your money to! (But first, send some to me, okay?)

And now, let’s talk benefits: 30 million acre-feet of per year of desalinated water; electricity produced and sold to the Harbor Improvement Districts for only 1 cent per kilowatt hour; but wait! there’s more!

At maximum build out, the Channel is estimated, by NORC, to generate, approximately, $92.12 trillion dollars per year, net profit, in private income from the sales of water, hydrogen, electricity, development, precious metals retrieval, and the manufacture of new automobiles. That’s correct, hydrogen will be sold, as well. This is because hydrogen is a by-product of the desalination method Dr. Beagles proposes. Not only can the Channel produce as much as 300 million acre feet, per year, of desalinated water but, it can also produce 4 million acre feet, per year, of compressed hydrogen. This is more than 20 times that needed to fuel all the passenger vehicles expected to be on the road in California in 2020; that is, if they are all hydrogen powered vehicles, of course. Though, there are expected to be a number of other profitable sources, NORC only estimated these. At a simple one (1) percent tax, this would mean, a maximum yearly expected revenue of $1.24 trillion dollars per year. Even at 10 percent of maximum build out, the Channel is expected to generate additional revenue, for the State of California, the affected Counties, and the United States, of $92.4 billion dollars per year.

92 trillion dollars per year in private income, and 92.4 billion in revenue for the government?! Bye bye budget deficit!!! And by the way, didn’t he say 30 million acre-feet of desalinated water earlier? and now it’s 300 acre-feet? Ahh, but who cares, we’ll all be rolling in the trillions of dollars anyway, while driving our hydrogen powered cars to board cruise ships in Palm Springs.

But what about the environmentalists? Rejoice, tree huggers everywhere! The channel will reduce environmental impacts to insignificant!

In accordance with the vast body of environmental law, today, any new water production and distribution system would have to be designed, in such a way, as to reduce environmental impacts to insignificance. Prior to the Channel, this was considered an impossible task. The Channel exceeds these expectations. It will not only maintain environmental impacts below threshold but, it will allow for the restoration of the many significant negative environmental impacts that the prior existing water production and distribution system caused. It is an environmentalists dream come true.

Yeah, right…. Earlier versions of this post mentioned removing every single dam in the Western United States, because the Salton Sea channel would provide enough water for all. Of course they didn’t give any details on how they would distribute that water to everyone….

Coming next week, Aqua Blog Maven will unveil a enormous investment opportunity to solve world hunger while eliminating global warming and unwanted facial hair!

You can read the full text of this ‘press release’ by clicking here.

May 25, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea, Weird & Wacky Water News

Comments

3 Responses to “California desalination effort info release: Sea of Cortez to the Salton Sea channel”

Dr. Abe Beagles on August 6th, 2008 1:22 pm

I have waited to see if anyone reads this web site and since no one has commented to me or on this site I must draw the conclusion that not too many people read this site. However, I have read it and will respond to the writer of the critism of this report. In your opening comment about a grain of salt, I thought you were being funny because desalination is the removal of salt, in case you don’t know the word. The process that you are critizing, The Plasma Incubator Reactor System was developed after almost three years of work by 5 brilliant scientists, physists and chemists who started working on a small water problem back in 2003 when they were called in by the EPA to evaluate what was called Slick Frac Water which was being produced after clean water was pumped down a natural gas well into the formation known as the Barnett Shale which is a gas producing formation in Texas. Today this is a major water problem in Texas, simply Google it and you will see.
In your next comment about the posting on Helium.com, which is where you can read about the entire plan for remediation of the Salton Sea which is the 3rd worst Superfund Site in America, you seemed to slight this site as unworthy of posting anything worth while on it just by the way your comment was structured. I am sure there are a lot of writers who post on Helium that would take issue with you on the value of their writing. Helium and the Green Pages or http://www.eco-web.com are sites where scientific papers can be posted that people who are interested can find them.
Since the Governor had copies of all of the reports done on this area of California and he knew what the Economic Impact Report showed as as revenue to the state of California, oh yes, I forgot you don’t have all of the information on this project or you would not have slammed the Governor for using the exact figures that came out of these reports, which he does have and you failed to find. To the reading America Public in California, where do you think the millions of tax dollars that the Governor was speaking about when he said and I quote “have found countless millions of dollars of revenue that we did not realize would be available”, in his State of the Union Address the same year.
Allow to close with this thought, I am glad that you choose to try and critize a project of this magnatitude which took the minds of some of the most renowned inventors and scientists in the world. Because it shows just how much a project like this is needed, with the benefits that this kind of a project would bring with it in jobs, revenue to the state and not to mention that almost free electricity that could only be acquired, by the way, along and within the Harbor District Boundries, because when the electricity you generate is a by product of cleaning up dirty water you can charge as little as the one cent that is mentioned in the Economic Impact posting which you apparently did not read or you would not have made some of the comments that were made. And after all who else in the nation, except the Governor, and this group has cared enough about the Salton Sea to bring about the efforts to find a means of reclamation for this area of our state, I think he should be applauded.
Aqua Blog Maven on August 6th, 2008 4:52 pm

Dear Mr. Beagles:

The lack of comments should not be construed as a lack of readership; if you check out the blog, you will see that comments are rare, and mostly by one person.

Also, at the rate California water news runs, this article is way down on the scroll. Nearly 1000 stories have been posted since I posted this. So, unless a link is circulating around, right now, only the two of us are here.

Please reread my comment about Helium. I did not slam Helium in any way; I mainly was pointing out that you are ‘claiming’ this is a press release from the Governor’s office, and the Governor’s office does not release press releases on Helium. They have their own website, email list (of which I am on) and distribution channels that do not include Helium. This press release you have written is not available on any of these official channels. I have checked the Governor’s website; it is not there. If you have an official channel to prove this is a press release from the Governor, please provide the link!

By the way, I cannot find the Salton Sea listed on any Superfund list at the EPA website. If it is the third worst SuperFund site, what list are you using?

And if we have those ‘countless millions of dollars available’, why do we have such a large budget deficit?

Perhaps the Plasma Incubator Reactor System you reference does exist; an internet search only points to articles that you yourself have written.

In today’s age of environmental awareness, it is widely acknowledged that the days of California’s major water projects are over. But what you are proposing dwarfs all previous projects. The environmental impact statements required on the phases of this project could fill Staples Center, I am guessing.

Remove all the dams in the Western United States? That, while an admirable plan, would cause many other problems - what about flood control? Many communities have sprung up on former flood plains now that the river is controlled.

You claim your system would provide enough water for all; yet this would require distributing it to get it to where it is needed - more canals & pipelines.

And what about hydroelectric power? Sure, your project would replace that, but then you have to run power lines to everywhere, and new power lines are not popular, either - check out the fight going on for the Green Path down through Imperial County.

In regards to your plan, it all sounds like a wonderful, grandiose plan designed to solve all of our problems all at once. Perhaps it is engineeringly feasible, but whether it will actually happen is, to me, quite doubtful. The fact that you advertise it as something that is going to happen and is all being done behind the collective people’s backs is laughable to me.

Sorry, Mr. Beagles, but with all due respect, I simply do not believe you.
john lewis on September 19th, 2008 4:54 pm

I heard the Dead Sea in Israel is doing the same thing. If only we could play that Jewish harp as well, we could save the Salton Sea, desalinate a lot of water, generate a lot of power,make a lot of desert bloom,create a lot of jobs,I mean how dumb not to do this.

John lewis
Juneau Alaska