This week's rain was a drop in bucket compared to what LA and the entire state need to make up for years of drought. But maybe if the rainfall were to be augmented, say, by a ton of water shipped in from a pristine Alaskan lake, we'd feel a little relief. This week, U.S. Representative Janice Hahn got together with reps from the Ports of LA and Long Beach, the Metropolitan Water District, and two other water districts to talk about making that happen, discussing options for taking an Alaskan company up on their offer to send a tanker full of water from a non-drought-stricken Alaskan lake to Southern California, says the Daily Breeze.
Sitka, the town near the donor lake, gets 100 inches of rain every year, and the company has the rights to as much as nine billion gallons of the lake water, so there's plenty to go around. But there are still plenty of details to work out, like how the water would be distributed once it got here or how all the water-dispensing infrastructure, like pipelines and storage tanks, would get built.
Also, there's the matter of money. While no exact price is mentioned, it's noted that the product from Alaska Bulk Water would be more expensive than the water that SoCal already buys from other water districts. At the meeting's end, "Nobody signed up for it, but it's a very interesting concept," Hahn told the DB. Hahn's still hopeful that this solution might be something that smaller districts and even hospitals could look to in the future. Southern California's gotten desperate and creative, even considering getting some water from Las Vegas, a one-time arrangement (so far, at least) that would cost $45 million.
· Could lake water from Alaska be shipped to L.A., Long Beach ports? [DB]
· Southern California is Going to Borrow Drought Water From Las Vegas of All Places [Curbed LA]