Gary Hansen by Wet Desert: Tracking Down a Terrorist on the Colorado River

Author:Wet Desert: Tracking Down a Terrorist on the Colorado River
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mystery, Mystery & Detective - General, Ecoterrorism, Mystery & Thrillers, Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico), Mystery & Detective, Fiction - Mystery, Detective, General, Suspense, Thrillers, Fiction
ISBN: 9780979352102
Publisher: Hole Shot Press
Published: 2007-05-15T07:00:00+00:00

Grant considered the question. "I have an assistant here with me from Denver. She has put together a timeline of what's going to happen downstream. It shows our estimates for when the water will reach each dam, all the way to Mexico and the Gulf of California. I'll get you a copy. As far as damage is concerned, if Hoover holds, we don't expect to lose any of the three major dams. But with Hoover's spillways at capacity, we're going to have just under 500,000 cubic feet per second going downstream."

Phil looked confused so Grant clarified. "That's almost fifty times normal for the lower Colorado River, basically twice the flow of Niagara Falls. Anything next to the river is going to be flooded, badly. Laughlin will be a total loss."

Phil frowned. "You said you don't expect to lose any major dams. What does that mean? Does that mean some small ones are going to fail?"

Grant nodded. "By far, the two biggest are Davis and Parker, which hold back LakeMojave and Havasu. Both of those have spillways that, theoretically, should be able to keep up with Hoover. Downstream are two small dams, Head Gate Rock and Palo Verde, which have comparatively little storage. Their primary purpose is to divert water for irrigation. As a worst case, we expect both of these dams to fail. However, neither should substantially affect floods downstream. The one we're worried about is the Imperial Dam, just north of Yuma, Arizona. It'll definitely be breached and we'd like to figure out a way to minimize the damage. As I explained before, Yuma is where the United States desalinates the water going to Mexico. So we want to protect the desalination plant."

"Approximately how many hours will the flood last? How soon will you be able to get people in to access the damage and make repairs?"

Grant stared at Phil. "It's not hours, Phil, it's months. It'll be almost two months before Hoover drops below the spillways. If we're lucky, the people can move back in and start sifting through their stuff by September 1st."

Phil's jaw dropped and he walked over and sat down. "Two months of Niagara Falls?"

"Two months of Niagara Falls times two," Grant corrected.

"I had no idea." Phil looked around, then back at Grant. "What about Mexico? What's going to happen there?"

"Well, before it gets to Mexico, there's the Laguna Dam. It's less than ten feet high. It won't even slow the water down. The dam in Mexicali, Mexico is called the Morales Dam. Its primary purpose is to divert the water into the Gila canal. It's not very big, and if the water destroys it, maybe the United States can help them rebuild it."

"What about downstream from Morales? Any more dams?"

Grant shrugged. "No, that's it."

"And your girl's list shows timelines for all these dams?"

"Yeah, she did a good job. She wrote a crude model for the whole thing. It lists estimated times for each reservoir to fill, and water travel times between dams."

Phil stood. "All right, we have a lot of phone calls to make.

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