This idea grew from Flying Toaster's comment about Hudson Bay in the linked idea. I looked at Wikipedia. Hudson Bay does indeed get a lot of fresh water, but then fritters it away mixing it with salt.

The route of the dam is obvious: there are islands up there which could be put to use. On cutting off the route to mix with worthless salt water, the bay will fill higher and higher with sweet fresh. Ideally one would want adequate water elevation such that the freshwater could then be piped by gravity to the Imperial Valley in CA, which is pretty low but a bit of a haul. The area of the bay might increase in the process, and so it is a good thing Wikipedia calls the coastline "scarcely populated".Tidal forces could be harnessed to help with the pumping.

Closer locales might be in the market for clear cold Canuckian H20 too; Kansas is getting pretty dry also I hear.

A trial run might be done with that small southerly piece first, as proof of principle. Southerly piece of the bay, not Kansas.
-- bungston, Jun 13 2015

Waterline to California waterline_20to_20Ca...nia/addnote#addnote
Enigmatic scheme rife (ripe?) with portential [bungston, Jun 13 2015]

Dam James Bay https://en.wikipedi...n_Development_Canal
Looks like there has been some thought given to that small southerly piece. [bungston, Jun 13 2015]

I dunno, [bung]. That's a huge amount of environmental engineering to provide water for the US.

Better, shirley, to get back to sensible population levels and use the naturally-available water more sensibly.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 13 2015


Didn't work for New Orleans ...

As to the idea ... Canadians selling stuff to the U.S. that falls out of the sky for free. Gotta love that.

But aren't the great lakes closer ? Rather than using Niagara for electricity generation (which can be done much cheaper and safely by nuclear fission), use the mechanical energy of the falls to drive turbine pumps to transport great lakes water to the south-west.
-- 8th of 7, Jun 13 2015


Don't be messing with my great lakes.
-- RayfordSteele, Jun 14 2015


People keep making bad decisions and we can offer advice but we shouldn't be burdened with their support, too. If you want to live in a desert don't forget to take some water with you.
-- cudgel, Jun 14 2015


Oh sure, fall victim to the decades of subliminal messages hidden in advertising slogans. Go ahead, drink Canada dry! See where that gets you!! Our wrath would be unimaginable - we have already unleashed Celine DIon and Justin Bieber on you. Do you really want to know what's next?

Besides, you USians have a solution much closer to home, and no Customs officials need be involved. I recall having seen license plates boasting that your great State of Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes, n'est-ce pas???

Now, according to W'pedia, there are actually 11,842 lakes that are bigger than 10 acres, and water from some of these lakes does end up in Hudson Bay so it makes sense to grab that water before it runs away to the Great White North. Imagine the energy savings!

Just remember - don't empty out more than 1,842 of them because it would be a b*tch if you had to change the motto on all those license plates!
-- Canuck, Jun 14 2015


Well, unless somebody wants to genemod seals and walruses for freshwater habitation, that would probably take care of the world's polar bear problem. We built a 30mile over-sea bridge a little while back for fun; 200mi is probably doable.

According to WP, The Bay averages 100m deep, covers 1.2 million km2 and has a freshwater influx of 700km3 per annum... so 200 years and it's the worlds largest lake.

Since salt water is heavier than fresh, all you really need is a curtain, opened at the bottom during tidal outflow
-- FlyingToaster, Jun 14 2015


Apropos the polar bears, who want to walk on the ice: fresh freezes warmer than salt.

Apropos sensible population: the water would be used to grow healthy vegetables to feed the hungry of the world. Where is the love for the hungry of the world? Hungry for antiscorbutic vegetables and life-giving almonds? You sunless Northerners have forgotten what it was like before California produce, when the womenfolks would pickle up sour yard weeds for the winter so your joints wouldn't seize up with scurvy by Valentines day.

And the embarrassing bit about the supposed 10,000 lakes… a lot of those lakes are poorly drained culverts, low spots in fields, water hazards and the like. But people want to have their lakes. And wikipedia can be edited by anyone, including the guy with the culvert. There are actually 3112 large enough to support fish.

Re the great lakes: yes they are big, and lack polar bears. But they lie pretty low. Raising the water level would be problematic (let me see if I can link image of awesome chicago mcdonalds mural depicting outcome). I am less sure how to get the water to pour south, which is why it would have been nice to see the routes proposed by the hillbilly in the linked idea.

--no luck with those chicago murals. They are so cool I thought they would be easy to find. I found the guy: Chris Campagna but no images of when the lake takes Chicago.
-- bungston, Jun 14 2015


Wikipedia remonstrates that 60% of the world's lakes are in Canada, not including the ice challenges, eh.
-- 4and20, Jun 14 2015


Apparently Canada has a "deranged" drainage system, which probably includes "ice bucket challenges".
-- FlyingToaster, Jun 15 2015



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