permaculture

["John Abdon" <jabdon@hotmail.com>]

Ah, but alas, I am a hopeless romantic myself. But then, Rome is a strange
reference when pondering things arabesque... While my stay among the Arabs
was totally a pleasure (their warmth and generosity is legendary and real),
what I report here represents the worst case scenario in terms of the
'perma' in permaculture.

One of the worlds largest and most prolific aquifers, the Wasia, outcrops
all along the villages of the Al Hassa Oasis along the Arabian Gulf (that's
what it's called from that side of the gulf) and covers the Eastern region
of the Arabian Peninsula. Realize that a small error in planning hydrocarbon
exploitation results in a large aquifer issue at the least. Environmental
engineering was reverse-engineering in all cases.

The largest was created accidentally and was an environmental disaster in
its own right. An oil field had been developed in a remote region of the
Southeast Corner down near the Emirates. Some years went by before it was
discovered that the surface casing was leaking about 200,000 bbls per well
of water to the surface. There were 76 wells. The interesting thing was how
quickly:

1) subsurface salts formed an impermeable barrier
2) Africa/Eurasia bird species migration diversion developed (eagles,
flamingoes, you name it!)
3) Amphibians (frogs, toads, salamanders, newts) appeared. I think the
storks brought them, but they were there
4) The perimeter of the pond was characteristic of mature marsh (20 to 50
feet margin of cattail, very clean fragrance indicating healthy microbial
communities, etc.). More details if anyone's interested.

Total size of the 'pond' ~ 25 sq. kms. The case was laid out to the
authorities to study it for at least a few years. However, a workover barge
was moved to the location, all wells were repaired, and the lake was gone.
No oil was ever produced from the field: by the time the wells were in place
the oil was not needed on the world market.

One of the inland towns created to support the oil industry became very
large in the late 70's early 80's. Sewage and waste water were not planned
for. A number of settling ponds ~ 5 acres each were created. A strip of
trees 1/2 km by 10 km of various native (Jerusalem Thorn mainly) and
imported species (including a number of varieties of eucalyptus) were
planted utilizing drip irrigation of the partially clarified waste water.
This evaporation through the leaves solved the waste water flood threatening
the ancient village nearby.

    `\\\\\\\\|||/
      (@@)            johnAbdon  jabdon@hotmail.com
ooO_(_)_Ooo___________________________________
_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_


----- Original Message -----
From: <FranksFarm@aol.com>
To: permaculture <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 1999 8:45 AM
Subject: Re: Pond construction ideas needed (for FranksFarm)


> Hi John,
>
> In a message dated 8/3/99 8:39:43 AM, jabdon@hotmail.com writes:
>
> << natural ponds dry up, usually rather quickly, and too often our
> implementations push the 'wetness' envelope beyond the tolerance of
various
> guild members>>  Hmmm...that's one of the reasons I'm looking to build a
> pond...to prevent loss of water on farm through evaporation , eventual
> drainage to creek. I'll only be using a relatively small portion of the
> spring abundance. Eventually I'd lie to have several small ponds
> strategically placed for watering cattle, small scale field irrigation,
> habitat etc.
>
> How large were those ponds you constructed? Glad to have people with such
> expertise commenting. It will keep the romantics grounded in reality. he
he
> BFN   Frank
>
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to permaculture as: jabdon@hotmail.com
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
$subst('Email.Unsub')
>
>