Editor, Times-Union: With all the flooding that has plagued Indiana this year, what we may need in the future is an underground reservoir system that might be connected to an interstate underground reservoir system that could hold more water than what is contained in the Great Lakes. Floods and droughts could be prevented when water is pumped from where it is not needed to where it is needed. Plasma excavation moles that use ultra-high temperature plasma cutting beams instead of solid cutting heads would be used to hollow out the reservoirs out of solid rock. There could be over 100 reservoirs under the surface of Indiana connected by pipes to the surface and to each other. Each reservoir could be used for fill and building material. Plasma moles would work faster than conventional tunneling moles, and since no solid cutting heads are used, there would be no down time replacing cutting heads. They could work 24 hours a day with minimal human supervision. If a plasma mole excavates each reservoir, it may take only a few years to complete the system in Indiana. To maintain safety and improve drinkability, extensive filtering and purification will be done as the water enters the reservoirs and as it is piped between reservoirs. Before water from the surface enters the treatment systems it will flow through turbopumps of hydro electric generators to produce electricity for the systems of the reservoir and the public. If the reservoir excavation were started during the summer, by the next spring the reservoirs could prevent flooding. If other states with reservoirs are ready, like California, water could be removed from lakes and rivers that have abundant water and pumped to states that need the water. California could have used that flood water of Texas and Indiana to lessen the drought conditions it is experiencing. I had a cable TV program in Peekskill, New York, and proposed the interstate reservoir system at least a decade ago. If you combine the interstate system with those of other countries and maybe with the Sahara Reservoir I proposed as a mega-project, the world’s sea levels may be lowered since water that is in existing bodies of water will be diverted a little to the new reservoirs. The Sahara Reservoir could lower the average temperature of the world with water replacing sand. Don’t worry about Florida being covered by water by 2200 if the reservoir systems exist before then. Rick Badman Warsaw
