Community Chat

[gardenman]

It's not as much a saltwater/corrosion issue as an elevation one. The lake is at a higher elevation than the adjoining seas. Getting water to run uphill is a problem, so they fill the locks from higher to lower elevations and use gravity to move the water. The freshwater used is then dumped into the oceans. Each time a ship passes through the locks the water in that first and last lock is dumped into the ocean. The more ships going through the locks the more freshwater from the lake gets lost. Panama is in the middle of their rainy season now and a big storm or two will have things back to normal. Their rainy season is from April through December so there's time for Mother Nature to make things right.

The size and number of pumps it would take to use saltwater from the oceans instead of the freshwater from the higher elevations is daunting. You're talking about pumps that would have to move millions of gallons of water a day. And most of the time they don't need to as freshwater is typically abundant this time of year.

[shoesnbags]

Thanks for the explanation @gardenman .  I was wondering why they use fresh water, but that makes sense to me now.