The Book of Water Volume One: Supply and Demand Concepts

By Mark W. Rozman

Floods and droughts. Dry riverbeds. Near-empty reservoirs. Depleting aquifers. The environment suffering greatly. Now is the time to address these issues. We need a national water policy now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483510231

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Introduction

FLOODING AND DROUGHTS

Since time immemorial, floods have been an integral part of nature. The deposit of alluvial silts and soils has always replenished the nutrients in the river basins where seasonal flooding occurs. These are not the only types of floods.

Other types of floods include tropical storms and hurricanes. Besides high winds and flying debris, torrential rain can cause flooding long distances from the coastal zones of hurricane and tropical storm landfall. Often enough, these rainfall totals exceed 10 inches in one region or locality. The property damage is immense, let alone personal injury and loss of life.

The annual spring thaw in the Northern regions of the United States is a multi-faceted event. When the ground itself is still frozen, melting snow on top cannot seep into the ground and be absorbed. It will either remain in low-lying areas or flow towards them. By the time the ground does thaw, the snowpack has mostly melted already, releasing a gallon of water per cubic foot of compacted snow, although that is just an estimate which can vary greatly. This snowmelt goes downhill, downstream or into low-lying areas that are natural water collectors and have been forever.

Beyond the spring thaw, spring storms also need to be taken into account. These storms often bring heavy rain or snowfall that will not absorb into the already saturated or still frozen ground. This water too, for the most part, will flow where it always has, regardless of human development. There are exceptions and these will be discussed.

Heavy rains are another cause of flooding, and they can occur virtually anywhere in the country. Certain regions experience consistent heavy rains year after year, while in other regions, heavy rains are more of an anomaly. The Northwest is especially vulnerable to heavy rains from Pacific Ocean currents that bring massive storms from Alaska, which experiences its own massive storms from the open ocean.

Nor’easter storms impact the Northeastern coast of the United States, mainly the New England states, but sometimes reaching into the Mid-Atlantic states. Here, excessive amounts of rain can occur at almost any time of the year.

The West Coast rainy season picks up, more or less, when the hurricane season ends and usually runs into April. Increased chances for localized flooding and flash floods can bring a wall or a suddenly violent torrent of water to a normally or previously dry area. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) refers to flash floods as the number one weather-related killer of humans. They can cause boulders, trees, buildings and even dams to become undermined and transported downhill or downstream, becoming projectiles towards anything in their path. A poignant example of this is the Big Thompson Flood in the 1970’s which took a huge toll in terms of loss of life and property damage. Some of the contributing factors to that disaster were natural, like heavy rains and steep mountain slopes, and some were manmade, like dams and inhabited, narrow canyons. Much was learned in the ensuing years and that tragic event in itself is worthy of study and thought from everyone.

Development creates flooding hazards by changing natural water courses and incorporating asphalt and concrete which prevent the absorption of large amounts of rain from storms of any variety.

Flooding in the United States has always been a double-edged sword. On one side is the tragic loss of life and the property damage, while on the other edge is renewed life and sustainability for tidal and river basins throughout every region of our country. These are some of the more modern aspects of flooding.

In ancient times, flooding and all the elements it affects, such as food, transportation, and shelter, were probably addressed in more sustainable ways. Long-term, people simply didn’t live in flood-prone areas without knowing the risks and how to avoid some of them. With the exception of levees and dams, a minimal amount of only obligatory technological resources have gone into flood control in the United States in recent history.

Floods are an excessive amount of water, but let’s examine the other side of the coin: deficient amounts of water, drought, dust bowls, and desertification. Parched animal bones in the desert. The gritty taste of a dust storm. Withered crops in a field. These types of conditions