Alaska: A Savior for Parched California?

Company plans bulk water shipments
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 15, 2015 4:13 PM CDT
Alaska: A Savior for Parched California?
Matt Goff and his daughter Rowan check out a flooded Swan Lake Jan. 14, 2014, in Sitka, Alaska.   (AP Photo/Daily Sitka Sentinel, James Poulson)

California doesn't have enough water and Alaska has plenty. Which is why, starting this summer, a company in southeast Alaska plans to begin shipping 10 million gallons a month to customers in the parched state, reports Alaska Dispatch News. It's not clear who those customers are, but Alaska Bulk Water CEO Terry Trapp says the contracts are in place. The Sitka company, which used to be in the bottled-water business, is still working out the logistics of storage and shipping, but it's already thinking beyond California. “The company has been in discussion with many of the water-stressed countries around the world and expects to begin international shipments in the near future as well,” says Trapp.

ADN notes that former Alaska Gov. Wally Hickel proposed the idea of shipping water to California decades ago via pipeline, but it was seen as too far-fetched. A recent post at Wired re-examined the pipeline idea and concluded that it's "still crazy" and would be too expensive to pull off. The bulk water shipments are an alternative to that. The water would come from 6-mile-long Blue Lake, and ADN's description is sure to make Californians jealous: "The water is so abundant that household use is not metered, and so 'clean in its natural state' that filtration is not required," it says, citing Sitka's public works department. (More Alaska stories.)

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