It's an enduring paradox of the American West: plenty of water, just not enough where it's needed. An Alaska company proposes to solve the disparity in coastal regions by filling ocean-going bags with millions of gallons of fresh water from Northern California rivers, towing them south and selling the water for profit to parched cities. It may start with San Diego.
OK, laugh. Then consider that a sister company is already doing it in the Middle East. And notice that Alaska Water Exports has applied for water rights on coastal rivers about 150 miles from Oregon and has its eye on others in Oregon and Washington. Keep in mind, too, that the company is talking with Northwest cities about buying excess municipal water to tow south. Good water is good water.
If the so-called water-bag technology works out, it would be the first practical way to share the Northwest's wealth of precipitation with thirsty Californians, who once proposed to funnel the Columbia River south.
"In most cases, it's the most efficient way to move water, and it's also the most environmentally unobtrusive way," said Ric Davidge, president of World Water SA, an international consortium that includes Alaska Water Exports and related companies in Norway, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
The consortium calls itself a pioneer of "bulk water delivery." It now hauls its seaborne bladders -- technically known as water transport bags -- between Cyprus and Turkey. It has yet to turn a profit there, owing in part, to a bag that ripped under tow and another that broke loose from its tugboat.
If there's a prime market for water, however, it's arid and crowded Southern California. San Diego gets 95 percent of its water via aqueducts from the Colorado River and Northern California. But it faces looming deadlines to wean itself from river water that belongs to other states.
Even with aggressive conservation, the average San Diego home uses twice the water of an average Portland home -- much of it for outdoor watering. The San Diego region has about 1 million more people than metro Portland but gets one quarter the rainfall.
The regional water agency even employs a director of imported water. Gordon Hess scouts new sources and may spend $250 million on the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere.
"If someone can demonstrate something that's reliable and workable, we'd probably look at it," Hess said.
Alaska Water Exports studied every major river outlet in Northern California, Oregon and Washington before applying for seasonal water rights on the Albion and Gualala rivers between Eureka and San Francisco, Davidge said.
The California Department of Water Resources will take public comment on the application in coming months. The department approves 99 percent of the applications it receives, but it has never received one like this, spokeswoman Myrlys Stockdale said.
"Certainly if this turns out to be economically viable, it's going to become an issue up and down the coast," said Bob Hunter of WaterWatch of Oregon.
Terry Spragg, a Seattle entrepreneur developing his own water bags that zip together in trainlike lineups, expects that as soon as one water-bag project succeeds, many more will follow.
"What tankers did for the oil industry, water bags will do for the water industry," he said.
Pumping during wet winters Alaska Water Exports picked the California rivers because they were among the closest to San Diego, they're clean and dependable, and environmental impacts would be minimal, Davidge said. The company wants to take 30,000 acre-feet -- nearly 10 billion gallons -- of water from the two rivers, but only during the winter when flows are at their maximum.
The company would run a pipeline from the river mouths up to a mile offshore, feeding fresh water into floating polyfiber bags 25 feet deep, 100 feet wide and nearly three times as long as a football field. Eac h bag holds 13.2 million gallons, enough to supply close to 100 average homes for a year.
Tugboats would tote the bags nonstop between the rivers and San Diego, making about 750 weeklong round trips to haul all the water. It would take as long as five years to turn a profit.
"A parked bag is not an efficient bag," said Davidge, who formerly headed Alaska's state water division and served in the Interior Department during the Reagan administration. "You only want them stopped when you're filling them or emptying them."
The company is negotiating with Northwest cities Davidge will not name to buy extra municipal water the company could tow to San Diego during the summer.
San Diego now pays about $450 per acre-foot of water. At that price, the river water would generate $13.5 million a year for Alaska Water Exports. But California's insatiable thirst will likely push prices higher -- desalination typically costs more than $1,000 per acre-foot of water, requiring government subsidies, and consumes vast amounts of energy, for instance.
And the more water is worth, the more closely the company may look at Northwest rivers, too.
"As the price of water goes up, the farther you can afford to tow it," Davidge said.
Flexible bags, flexible business Pillows of air built into the water bags, and the simple fact that fresh water is lighter than saltwater, keep the bags bobbing at the ocean's surface. They are safe in storms because, unlike ships, they roll and flex with waves. And they're more secure from terrorism than water pipelines or plants, Davidge said.
"You blow up a bag, we can put another bag in the water in a matter of hours," he said.
Unlike reservoirs, they can adapt to supply and demand.
"We adjust the size of the bag or the frequency of delivery and you don't have a lot of water sitting around doing nothing," Davidge said.
The idea has faced skepticism even in thirsty California, where ambitious water bosses once contemplated diverting water from the Columbia River. Part of the resistance has to do with tension between Northern and Southern California, and part has to do with concerns about harm to rivers, estuaries and fish.
But the strategy taps water that's headed into the ocean, has little impact on land, and consumes far less energy than desalination plants or tanker ships, Davidge said.
"The people who control water and water politics are wedded to concrete and steel solutions," he said. "We're the first system that allows water to flow the entire length of a river before you use it.":
