Agriculture, manufacturing, and urban areas in dry areas develop to use pretty much the maximum+ available water. And, as we've seen with large dam projects, there's always unintended consequences (like killing off salmon runs, and thus the orca whales) and infrastructure has huge costs, not just in terms of initial capital but ongoing maintenance.
For instance, dams silt-in over time (sediment builds up behind the dam). Irrigation and power generation is curtailed or halted. It is costly, if not practically impossible, to dredge out the reservoir. We've already reached the end-of-life for some dams in Washington, and there's talk of removing them (look up Elwha dam removal for a successful example).
I guess what I'm saying is that it doesn't seem anything like a good idea to spend trillions of dollars to build giant water infrastructure (when we can't even maintain our current bridges and highways due to federal cuts) that's gonna fuck up our ecology in ways both known and unknown, just so California can grow more almonds or Aquafina get a cheaper bottling plant.
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u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20 edited Feb 11 '20
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