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How to fix our inland waterway system

January 25, 2022

How to fix our inland waterway system

Preface.  As you can see in Table 1 below, water transport is far more energy efficient than land transport, especially once we’re back to muscle power after fossil fuels are gone.

Kilojoules of energy used to carry one ton of cargo one kilometer Transportation mode
50 Oil tankers and bulk cargo ships
100–150 Smaller cargo ships
250–600 Trains
360 Barge
2000–4000 Trucks
30,000 Air freight
55,000 Helicopter

Table 1 Energy efficiency of transportation in kilojoules/ton/kilometer. Source: Smil (2013), Ashby (2015).

To prepare for energy descent, more canals should be created now, while we still have cheap plentiful energy. We’ll also need to keep in mind the maintenance and dredging of canals after fossils as well (De Decker 2018).

The National Academy of Science study (159 pages) found that the selection of waterways projects for authorization has a long history of being driven largely by political and local concerns. The approval and funding process is an irrational, byzantine mess.

***

NRC. 2015. TRB special report 315: funding and managing the U.S. inland waterways system: what policy makers need to know. National Resource Council Transportation research board, National Academy of Sciences.

Inland waterway system stats:

  • The inland waterways system moves 6 to 7 percent of all domestic cargo in terms of total ton-miles, mostly coal, petroleum and petroleum products, food and farm products, chemicals and related products, and crude materials.
  • Inland waterways include more than 36,000 miles of commercially navigable channels and roughly 240 working lock sites.
  • Barges mostly carry energy: coal, crude petroleum, petroleum products, and natural gas based fertilizers

2013 Commodities carried by USACE at http://www.navigationdatacenter.us/wcsc/pdf/pdrgcm13.pdf

  • Tons
  • Millions     Commodity
  • 312.3     Coal                      
  • 418.9     Crude petroleum
  • 508.6     Petroleum products
  • 39.9       Chemical fertilizer
  • 140.6      Chemicals excluding fertilizers
  • 53           Lumber, logs, wood chips, pulp
  • 163.5      Sand, gravel, shells, clay, salt, and slag
  • 85.4        Iron ore, iron, and steel waste and scrap
  • 29.5        Non-ferrous ores and scrap
  • 45           Primary non-metal products
  • 72           Primary metal products
  • 270         Food and food products
  • 121         Manufactured goods
  • 62.3        Unknown and not elsewhere classified products
  • 2,275      TOTAL

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Cities Are Finally Treating Water as a Resource, Not a Nuisance

September 6, 2015

Cities Are Finally Treating Water as a Resource, Not a Nuisance

From Houston to Melbourne, the surprising ways urban areas are dealing with water woes

Memorial Day barbecues and parades were thwarted this year in Houston when a massive storm dumped more than 10 inches of rain in two days, creating a Waterworld of flooded freeways, cars, houses and businesses, leaving several people dead and hundreds in need of rescue.

But it was a predictable disaster. That’s because, thanks to a pro-development bent, the magnitude of stormwater runoff has increased dramatically as Houston has sprawled across 600 or so square miles of mud plain veined with rivers, sealing under asphalt the floodplains and adjoining prairies that once absorbed seasonal torrential rains and planting development in harm’s way. Land subsidence from groundwater pumping and oil and gas development and, now, sea level rise and more frequent and severe storms are applying additional pressure from Galveston Bay, which sits just east of the city of 2.2 million.

The good news? Houston had already begun shifting gears, hoping to reduce the severity of future floods by reclaiming 183 miles of natural waterways that snake through the city and 4,000 acres of adjacent green space from industrial areas through a project known as the Bayou Greenways. The goal is to absorb rain where it falls, reducing the volume rushing into stormwater detention facilities, and to encourage biking and walking as “active transit” in the parks that make up the Bayou Greenways.

With these measures, Houston is beginning to embrace a worldwide trend in urban retrofitting — layering new infrastructure on top of old to help cities weather climate change. In many places, that includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions: shifting to cleaner energy, making buildings more efficient and improving public transit. For cities facing increased threats from floods and droughts, it also means adapting to a changing world by finding new ways to manage water.

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Microplastics at ‘alarming levels’ in Canadian lakes and rivers

July 19, 2015

Microplastics at ‘alarming levels’ in Canadian lakes and rivers

Microbeads just tip of plastic iceberg floating in Canadian waters

Tiny plastic pellets called microbeads have gotten a lot of attention as a major water pollutant, but less-discussed microplastics are equally concerning, according to new research being done in Canada.

“In recent years, they’ve been detected in a growing number of lakes and rivers worldwide. They’re everywhere, and often in alarming levels,” said Anthony Ricciardi, a professor at the McGill School of the Environment, who is working on a study about microplastics.

Microplastics are small particles of plastic less than five millimetres in size that are often found in bodies of water near large urban populations. Microbeads, which are used in toothpastes, makeup and body cleansers, are one part of the broader category of microplastics.

MICROPLASTICS JULY 15 2015 sample closeup

Biologist Lisa Erdle points out a tiny fake leaf made of plastic hidden in her sample of sediment from Lake Ontario on July 15, 2015. Her team is searching for plastics smaller than 5 mm in diameter to study the level of microplastic pollution in Canadian fresh waters. (Micki Cowan/CBC)

Microbeads are “getting all the attention, but they’re only one component to this,” Ricciardi said. “As time goes on, people are going to realize the importance of the other pieces, too.”

A 2014 study of the U.S. Great Lakes by the 5 Gyres Institute found an average of 43,000 microplastic particles per square kilometre. Near cities, the number jumped to 466,000.

Dislodged from clothing in the wash

The plastic particles in the Great Lakes include microbeads, but also come from other sources, such as bits of polymer that detach from clothing when it is washed, as well as granules from industrial abrasives.

 

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Olduvai IV: Courage
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Olduvai II: Exodus
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