[env-trinity] SDN: French company plans water pipeline from Klamath to Southern California

Thu Jun 4 14:14:19 PDT 2015

What is it about the French? Turn to any natural disaster, civil war,
genocide, drought, tragic situation in the world and there, right in the
middle of it, will be Frenchmen with a business-engineering solution ready
to cash in 
 they should scrap the ‘R’ and simply call this one ‘Via Mania’.

From: env-trinity [mailto:env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us] On
Behalf Of Sari Sommarstrom
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2015 1:27 PM
To: 'Env-trinity'
Subject: [env-trinity] SDN: French company plans water pipeline from Klamath
to Southern California

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French company plans water pipeline from Klamath to Southern California 
David Smith –Siskiyou Daily News – June 3, 2015
@sdndavidsmith 

PARIS, France - California's search for drought solutions has attained a
global reach, with one French company proposing to extend the useful life of
Klamath River water for the rain-starved fields to the south.

Via Marina, a subsidiary of France's VINCI Construction, submitted a
prefeasibility study to the state in February detailing the proposed use of
its patented water delivery system. 

Dubbed a "submarine river," the system utilizes an underwater pipeline to
deliver water from the mouth of a river to a separate location. 

Via Marina's vision for California is the establishment of a submarine river
taking water from the mouth of the Klamath and Eel rivers and delivering it
to parched areas in Central and Southern California. 

Still in its infancy, the proposal is considered a first step in what Via
Marina founding partner and Managing Committee Chairman Félix Bogliolo hopes
will be a serious look at a unique solution to the ongoing drought problem. 

Speaking with the Siskiyou Daily News by email and Skype, Bogliolo shared
insights about his company's vision and how it interacts with California's
complex water politics. 

He explained that the system is installed at a river's "salt wedge limit,"
where the transition from fresh to salt water is just beginning. 

"At that point, all users upstream have been fully served with all the water
they need for their uses, and downstream, there can't be any more human
users," he said. 

Bogliolo added that there is still one important user within the river's
influence - the ecosystem - and its needs would require consideration when
determining how much water could be diverted through the submarine river. 

That determination would be made in what Via Marina hopes is the next step
for the state: a full feasibility study that would examine potential impacts
on the environment, the costs of construction and other aspects of what
would be a large scale project along California's coast. 

In the 1970s, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation studied the concept of an
undersea aqueduct that would pull from the Klamath and Eel rivers, at the
time finding that such a system could deliver approximately 4 million
acrefeet of water annually. The cost, using April 1973 prices, was estimated
to be $20 billion, plus an annual investment and operations costs of about
$1.8 billion.

Thanks to advances in engineering and construction - united in Via Marina's
system - the company believes that those costs would be significantly less
today, according to Bogliolo. 

He said that the company is currently working with the Chilean government
and its citizens to explore a proposal to take water from a southern river
and bring it north, where climate changes are hindering an already dry
region. He added that such a water delivery is expected to help boost the
ability to expand agriculture to areas where land is plentiful but where
water is needed to put it into production. 

The fallowed fields of California's Central Valley could benefit in much the
same way, according to Bogliolo, who called attention to the burgeoning
human population and its continuing need for more food as space to produce
it becomes scarce. 

He said that the company envisions the proposal as one that can benefit not
just agriculture but possibly municipal, industrial and environmental needs
as well. 

He does not see it as a cure all, however; he said that he believes there
would still be a need for continued conservation and preservation in water
use. 

"Obviously, this is a last resort measure. All measures of good governance,
preservation, reasonable use and savings should be, immediately and in any
case, put in place and strictly observed and enforced," he said, "and not
only to cope with the current drought but over the long run so that they
deeply form part of the normal California way of life or culture." Asked how
he would sell the project politically - beyond the scientific considerations
- Bogliolo said that he sees the issue as one requiring solidarity with
fellow citizens in need. 

"Northern folks are happy to eat good southern vegetables or fruits and
drink excellent southern wine. Southerns could use northern water to grow
them, and it wouldn't hurt Northern California," he said. 

Whether the state agrees is still in question, both regarding the likelihood
of a feasibility study being conducted and whether it is under serious
consideration. 

The Siskiyou Daily News contacted the Department of Water Resources, North
Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and California Office of
Emergency Services, all of which either failed to respond by press time or
pointed to one of the other agencies for answers. 

Bogliolo sees it as the state's prerogative to figure out whether it wants
to explore the issue and expressed it in simple terms. 

"It's a matter of conducting a rational decision-making process, taking into
account all facets of the issue at stake: scientific, technical, commercial,
environmental, political, financial and human, weighing all of the pros and
cons," he said. 

He also offered to come to the Klamath region to discuss the issue with
citizens, scientists and government officials free of charge. 

With the ongoing need to fill the gap between water needs and water
available, Bogliolo said that the ball is in California's court when it
comes to figuring out whether his company has the best solution. 

"Because of that gap, California has a problem, a permanent and
long-standing one, one that comes from long ago, that will only get worse
with climate change and that the next few rain drops won't solve," he said.
"It just happens that Via Marina has a solution, a solution that is at the
same time efficient, permanent, environmentally sustainable and cost
effective, contrary to many others." 

This conceptual drawing from Via Marina shows a proposed pipeline that would
run from the mouth of the Klamath River to Southern California underneath
the Pacific Ocean.

http://nl.newsbank.com/graphic/transparent.gif

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