I drove over the 275 bridge around Cincinnati Tues nite, The Ohio is out of it's banks about a mile on the northern, (Ohio & Indiana) side. That's 300 miles from the Mississipi. All of that water has to pass before the flooding gets better.
......and before it gets to the Mississippi, both the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers will have to join it. Even though both of them have huge dams on them, I would imagine they are just about at capacity already. Texas has been after Great Lakes water for years. Someone should tell them this is available, closer, and free. Even with all the heavy snow and rainfall, the Great Lakes are still very low. So where's it going?
.....and Michigan tops another list. It also has the dubious honor of being #1 on a list of states that send their garbage to us so we can bury it. Haven't checked recently, but 43 states (and Ontario) are exporting their garbage to us so we can bury it in the epicenter of the Western world's fresh water supply. Wait until the politicians realize they can line their pockets more and fund their touchy-feelY social programs by importing garbage from China and other places. We could have "garbage futures! and make $$$ and control the market price of that, too! After all our Lady Guv's (or was that last week?) latest theme is to make Michigan #1 in the development of renewable resources. More brilliance.
:laugh: "Then theres long term costs such as waste disposal. I don't know if you're familiar with who runs that business but I assure you it's not the boyscouts" Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School.
Dave, you forgot to mention who's subsidizing all that imported garbage. I only put one trash bag at the curb each month, but it costs me over $10 to do so. If they're going to import trash, the least they could do is give Michigan citizens a cut of the profits (by reducing our tipping fees). Same for the bottled water. If they're going to export our water, they should tax every bottle and put the money into state parks, preserving the lakes, and hazardous waste clean-up.
Profits? Not only do you get to subsidize the operations through your taxes and garbage fees (recycling...what was the objective again?) you get to pay for the repair to the roads torn up by those very heavy trucks. Lots of that garbage in these trash mountains is required to provide fuel to power nearby businesses. They get federal subsidies to build them & operate them, and the customer (usually a large "green" corporation) gets "cheap" power, as well as other perks from the gov't for using a renewable energy source....but it requires a continuous of flow of garbage to keep it going.....like the ones along I-275 south of Michigan avenue down to Ecorse. Wayne Assembly and Michigan truck plant rely upon it and for that reason, will probably be on the list pf [;ants to keep right behind Dearborn Assy...scratch that.... "the Henry Ford".