The Big Squirt Will Save Us
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 12.29.08
John Laumer wrote earlier about shale oil in Colorado, that finding the energy to both heat oil shale to 700 degrees while simultaneously freezing the surrounding rock with 30 feet of ice was not a big problem, but finding the water to do it all is. But he forgets that Science Will Save UsTM and that technology like the Big Squirt can easily shoot all the water they need down from the Great Lakes.
According to Modern Mechanix,
Sidney Cornell, a Los Angeles construction engineer, thinks he has a solution. He wants to construct a series of geyser-like power plants one mile apart to shoot water from the mouth of one into the funnel of the next, as depicted here by MI artist Frank Tinsley. The water would arc over hilly sections, have a flat trajectory over plains. Its velocity would approach 400 mph. These stations—400 in all—would cost about $300,000 each.
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I so love engineer-think.
good
That's a horrible idea! Please don't! The Great Lakes should be considered a national park as they are one of the most beautiful places left on the NA contienent.
This doesn't look like engineer-think, this looks like Sci-Fi think. In other words, the maximum amount of drama with as little actual science as you can get away with.
Besides the astonishing impracticality of the plan, it's also silly. A minimum of 40% of the water would be lost to evaporation and wind deflection of the water jets. Build a pipeline instead, fool.
And that's aside from the obvious brain-damage behind oil shale in the first place.
Obviously this guy is in the pocket of Big Geyser.
You touch my lakes and I will personally destroy as many of those stupid plants as possible.
As Sam Kinison once said, "YOU LIVE IN A DESERT! NOTHING GROWS HERE, NOTHINGS GONNA GROW HERE!"
Dan in Michigan
It's engineer-think, but it's not a very good design. What happens if there's a lot of wind? What about evaporation during the summertime? There's a good chance that most of the water drained will never reach California.
Of course, it's as realistic as the space hotels they had in other magazines of the time.
This has to be an April Fool's joke :p
Any engineer would have fun designing the system, but they are also not dumb enough to think putting that much energy into getting a few barrels of oil is worth it. The input energy is far greater than the return :p
Shooo! If he's a licensed engineer, I think the west has more to worry about than drought!