"da Cruz, Daniel - Republic of Texas 02 - Texas on the Rocks" - читать интересную книгу автора (Da Cruz Daniel)

"And where will we find it?"

"I don't know. At present there aren't any."

The next day Congressman Castle called Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Water Resources Jacob Jonas.

"Do you agree with Dr. Garbolotti's pessimistic vision of the future for the great plains, Mr. Jonas?" he asked.

Mr. Jonas removed his glasses and made a show of polishing the lenses. He smiled deprecatingly.

"Dr. Garbolotti sometimes gets carried away, Congressman. Actually, two projects, both eminently sound, are waiting only for congressional sanction and funding to solve this problem."

"Would you kindly describe them for the committee?"

Jonas pushed his glasses onto his balding forehead and opened a file.

"Alternative one proposes a series of canals, lined and covered to minimize losses through seepage and evaporation. They will be constructed by the Corps of Engineers from the headwaters of the Arkansas, Platte, Missouri, and Mississippi rivers to distribute those waters among the plains states. A favorable gradient would allow the water to flow southward and eastward by gravity; unfortunately, that gradient does not exist. Therefore, tunnels will have to be blasted through the intervening Rocky Mountains, intermediate reservoirs excavated, and pumping stations installed to raise the water to higher levels."

"How long would these canals be?"

"The shortest is 375 miles; the longest, 1,140."

"And the diameter of these tunnels and canals?"

"The canals will vary according to terrain and subsoil," said Mr. Jonas, "but the tunnels will be on the order of six meters in diameter."

"And the cost, in time and dollars?"

Jonas hesitated. As a high-echelon bureaucrat, he felt himself above such grubby details. He consulted his notes.

"Well, Congressman, this is a long-standing proposal. Back in 1970, cost estimates ranged from $3.6 to $22.6 billion. Today, thirty-five years later, because of inflation we would have to multiply the figures by nine, to the $160 to $200 billion range. If done on a crash basis, it would take twelve years."

"By which time," said Castle curtly, "the Midwest would become a new dust bowl."

"That, sir, is a matter of opinion. I myself--"

"You mentioned a second alternative."

"Yes, sir. NAWAPA."

"I beg your pardon?"

"NAWAPA: the North American Water and Power Alliance. This is a plan to use water, currently completely wasted, for irrigating the Midwest."

"That sounds promising. I wasn't aware any such water existed."

"Indeed it does, and this project to utilize it was first conceived back in the 1950s. The idea is to reverse the flow of rivers emptying into the polar seas, where it benefits no one."

"That is very imaginative, Mr. Jonas, but will it work?"